Rwanda’s Entrepreneurial Uprising

Anthony B. Kim /

Remember Hotel Rwanda?  That movie depicts the true story of a man fighting impossible odds to save everyone he could during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Hotel Rwanda was a symbol of desperate hope for survival. Almost two decades later, by contrast, Rwanda has many symbols of hope for a brighter future.

As a matter of fact, those hopes for the future have already been transformed into the reality of greater prosperity and opportunity for many Rwandans. Indeed, recent years’ economic reforms have made Rwanda one of the notable economies in the world. According to a just published World Bank study, Doing Business in the East African Community 2010, the Rwandan economy shines with a global ranking of 11th in opening a new business. Early this year, the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom told a similar story.  Rwanda improved on half of the ten indicators of economic freedom, achieving the fourth largest score gain among 179 countries.

(more…)