Kagame advocates for stronger capital markets to finance development

The president of Rwanda Paul Kagame has said that the establishment of stronger capital markets will provide a pull of funds that would finance investments on the continent thus contribute towards Africa’s economic growth.

While opening the World economic Forum on Africa-WEF Africa2016 on Thursday in Kigali, the president noted that there is need for the continent to shift from boutique investments to scale up investments which require bigger financing.

“Building a big and efficient capital markets to enable institutional investors such as pension funds to achieve stable and reliable funds to invest in Africa,” President Kagame said.

“But we need to be thinking bigger because Africa needs that capital in order to grow”, the president expressed.

The three day  forum that  kicked off on Wednesday May 11 has attracted over 1,200 business, leaders, policy makers across the globe to discuss ways to leap frog Africa’s economy under the  theme “Connecting Africa’s Resources through Digital Transformation”.

President Kagame said Africa is a continent of opportunities and partnerships in globalization where nations have common values and ambitions and a motivation towards spurring growth to achieve sustainable growth.

“Moreover to be able to convenient the forum here in Rwanda demonstrates that optimism about Africa’s prospects is always the best response to adversity,” he noted

Moreover at the back of the continent’s growth, the president says information and technology plays a vital role and has seen ICT making market platform commercially viable for the first time.

“The transformative power of Information Technology is at the core but ICTs are not a magic bullet there is a bigger context,’ President Kagame who is t the forefront of advancing use of technology in the continent said.

The president also added there is need for Africa to focus on political stability and security to create a just and equitable society where people are able to peacefully contribute towards economic growth.

“Development is more about money, machines or good policies it’s about people and lives they lead with countless choice they make each and every day, the president said adding it’s a myth that economic and social development can ever occur without civil participation and rights.