The statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Ugandan town of Jinja, the source of the Nile where his ashes were immersed, stands as a symbol of India’s longstanding ties with sub-Saharan Africa. The fact was duly acknowledged by Vice President Hamid Ansari when he arrived in Jinja during his five-day visit to Uganda and Rwanda from February 19 to 23. Ansari said India wanted to build on the strong links with Africa that went back to the days of Gandhi. From sharing a history of colonisation to building smart cities together, the India-Africa friendship is breaking new ground with Prime Minister Narendra Modi keen to change the pecking order of countries which are wooing Africa.
In Uganda, Ansari lauded the efforts of the local Indian community, which he said was a key part of India’s ties with the country. He also stressed the importance of deepening cooperation with Uganda on a range of sectors including energy, space, pharmaceuticals and health care.
Ansari’s visit to Rwanda was the first high-level diplomatic visit by an Indian dignitary in recent times. The vice president called Rwanda the “shining star of Africa” and urged the global community, including India, to learn from its indomitable spirit. Ansari was referring to the 1994 genocide and how Rwanda rose from the ashes to build a “world class city” in the heart of Africa in the shortest possible time. “The country is making remarkable progress and we hope the Indian business community will look at it as a destination,” said Ansari.
India signed three MoUs with Rwanda, to establish an entrepreneurship development centre, to enhance bilateral air services and to ease diplomatic visa norms. “We are working to fulfil the dreams of two billion people. With a vision of shared prosperity, our conversations are about building better futures together,” said Amar Sinha, secretary (economic relations) in the ministry of external affairs. “We are speaking to African partners about bridging the digital divide. To bring people into mainstream, we are sharing our successful financial inclusion schemes. We are talking about sustainable development,” he said.
Rwanda has been successfully implementing initiatives similar to India’s smart city project and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. “When we talk of partnership in development, there is so much we can learn from them. When Andhra Pradesh builds the new capital, we will encourage this kind of interaction,” Sinha said.
India does not need any push to realise its potential in the region particularly when global giants like China are making giant leaps in spreading their economic presence across Africa.
A memorial for the 1994 genocide victims of Rwanda. The country has made significant socioeconomic progress since then.
The MoUs were signed in the presence of young entrepreneurs and business leaders at the India-Rwanda business forum organised by the Rwandan Development Board and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. “We are looking forward to greater business ties with India. The attractive part of doing business in Rwanda is that there is zero corruption here,” said Binu Thomas, a founder member of the Indian association in Rwanda. Thomas, who came to Rwanda in 2001 from Kerala, now runs a successful computer venture in Kigali.
Another successful entrepreneur of Indian origin is Vishnumaya R. Nambiar, the youngest founding member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda. “I finished my chartered accountant’s course here and then started my own firm. Today I am an audit partner in Nambiar Grant Thornton, which has investors from 37 nationalities,” said the 23-year-old.
Pierre Celestin Rwambukumba, the chief executive officer of the Rwandan Stock Exchange, which has a market capitalisation of $3.5 billion, is yet another entrepreneur, who has made it big. “We started from scratch in 2004 when we were looking for investments in the country. I used to work from a single room using a writing board. From those humble beginnings, today I’m the CEO and it is a full industry of stockbrokers and fund assistant managers,” he said. Pierre, 41, has innovative ideas like elevating slums through projects like Social REITs (social real estate investment trust). “We help people who are living in prime land without any titles,” he said.
The Rwandan success story is one of reconciliation, said Sinha, summing up Ansari’s African visit. “The concept of majoritarianism,” he said, “has given way to intermingling and focusing on cultural and linguistic similarities which has helped it emerge from a site of great conflict to a shining star.”
