| Bienvenue
à Kigali pour la prochaine étape, Mr Obama! Serait-il
erroné de penser que ce moment suivra bientôt? Je ne
vois pas pourquoi on ne peut pas le croire. Même si c'est
un rêve, pourquoi ne pas rêver? Surtout quand ce sont
de bons rêves!
Why
Rwanda wins world prizes : Here are some
good reasons:
On
September 9, the Doing Business Report of the World Bank Group ranked
Rwanda as the world’s top reformer in creating a business
friendly environment. The report also showed that within one year,
Rwanda jumped from number 139 to number 67 out of 186 countries
sampled – almost jumping 60 positions. No country
in the world has ever managed such a feat. Uganda also made a jump
but in reverse – from number 111 to 112. The key areas of
reform considered by the report include starting a business, employing
workers, getting credit (legal rights), protecting investors, registering
property, closing a business and trading across borders. According
to the report, Rwanda is the 5th highest ranking African country
after Mauritius (17th), South Africa (34th), Botswana (45th) and
Namibia (66th). How has this poor and obscure country beaten Africa’s
giants like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco
in being open for business? The critics of Rwanda’s current
leadership must be biting their nails. On April 20, Time magazine
nominated President Paul Kagame among the 100 most influential people
in the world – alongside Barack Obama and Gordon Brown. Writing
the commentary on the nomination was Pastor Rick Warren, the most
respected evangelist in America – now an advisor to Kagame.
On July 16, the World Technology Network (WTN) had nominated Kagame
as the world’s best policy leader in advancing the use of
new technologies. Later, Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria told CNN
in an interview that Rwanda is Africa’s most successful nation
– when Barak Obama was singing Ghana. Zakaria who also hosts
GPS program on CNN is among the most intellectually minded journalists
in the world. This September, I was at the University of Oxford’s
Said School of Business in an Africa leadership program. The program
brings together 20 Africans in their mid-30s who have made a mark
in the corporate world to spend time sharing ideas on leadership
on the continent. Throughout our discussions, Kagame was being cited
by everyone, fellows and the visiting lecturers alike, as the exemplar
of good leadership. When I attended the Australian business leadership
retreat in August 2008, Rwanda was referred to by almost every major
speaker. When I went to China for the World Economic Forum meeting
in September 2008, the CEO on Intel gave me a ride from my hotel
to the conference hall. I told him I was from Uganda but he thought
I said Rwanda.
“You have a great president in Rwanda,” he told me,
“He is mentioned at every technology conference I attend.
Rwanda is too poor and small a country to have such a profile especially
in the area of technology. How have you done it?” For a moment,
I was tempted to associate myself with success. I decided to be
honest. I am from Uganda, I said, Rwanda is our neighbor to the
south-west. “That country seems to be going nuts, eh”
he said, “And your president doesn’t want to leave power,
huh?” So what product has Rwanda given to the world that everyone
is buying into? The answer was given to me by Joe Ritchie. After
making hundreds of millions of dollars as a commodities and options
trader in Chicago, Ritchie has now settled in Rwanda as advisor
to Kagame and CEO of Rwanda Development Board. What would make a
successful multi-millionaire leave his exciting business to come
live and work in this impoverished nation?
“I have a fund,” Ritchie once told me as we sat down
to a cup of coffee, “It is just my own money that I invest
in companies on the basis of the character of the CEO, that’s
the only thing I look at. I don’t look at what sector they’re
in, I don’t look at their sales projections, I don’t
look at sales growth, I don’t look at anything except the
character of the CEOs. I picked about 60 or 70 companies out of
the hundreds and hundreds of them and I bought their stock. This
fund outperforms the market regularly.” What has this got
to do with Rwanda’s growing international reputation? Ritchie
met Kagame at a dinner organised through a friend. “And in
five minutes, I knew there’s not another head of state on
the planet like this guy, he’s just unique.” Ritchie
has met many world leaders from across all the continents. “I
think politicians are all crooks,” he told me, “But
this man (Kagame) was clearly different. He is honest, sincere,
genuine and straightforward.”
“I realized I can sell this man to the private sector,”
Ritchie went on, “I can’t sell him in Washington. Washington
doesn’t care if you do right or wrong. In fact they like guys
that are on the take, because then they can control them with money.
I mean Washington is the biggest payer of bribes on the planet.
Generally, they don’t appreciate honest straightforward heads
of state, because they can’t control them. But I know that
in the private sector there are people that would appreciate it.
“I took a list of the companies whose CEOs care about character,”
he continued, “We began introducing Kagame to CEOs on my list
of companies and others we knew by reputation were very good guys.
Soon we had introduced him to five people that knew President George
W. Bush personally. If you know a CEO or someone that’s been
very successful and he calls up the White House and says, you know
what, there’s a little country called Rwanda, and a guy named
Paul Kagame that runs it, and you need to focus on that guy because
they are going to go somewhere, you pay attention. And if a second
one calls, you say, wow. Well, by the time three or four or five
call, it’s all over.” We are told repeatedly that only
one mortal human being has the competences to lead Uganda. If Kagame
had remained here, he would still be one of the many people we would
be told has no capacity to make a good president. The lesson is
that NRM and our country are teaming with many talented people who
can make good presidents. Do not stifle them.
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