OPEN LETTER To: Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group

OPEN LETTER

To: Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

Regarding: President Paul Kagame’s plunging Rwanda back into indebtedness and insolvency

Dear President Banga and Managing Director Georgieva,

We write to you as Rwandans deeply concerned by the reckless fiscal trajectory of President Paul Kagame’s administration—a trajectory that your institutions are actively bankrolling. A little over a decade after the international community generously forgave and wiped clean Rwanda’s debt, the Kagame regime has completely squandered that blank slate. Today, Kagame is rapidly plunging Rwanda back into the abyss of indebtedness and impending insolvency. And it is the World Bank and the IMF holding the purse strings as this disaster unfolds.

Look at the staggering reality of Kagame's vanity projects. Rwanda just announced that it will host the Grand Prix race which will add an estimated $1.2 billion. Rwanda is also constructing a $2 billion new airport while RwandAir has so far cost $2 billion. These multi-billion-dollar luxuries are being pursued in a country where the per capita income is a meager $1,123, and multidimensional poverty grips 48.8 percent of the population.

How can your institutions justify financing a government that prioritizes elite global spectacles over the fundamental needs of its people?

The systemic indicators of an impending default are flashing red, yet the World Bank and the IMF continue to turn a blind eye:

•  Exploding Debt: Rwanda’s national debt has climbed aggressively back to $13 billion, now consuming an alarming 74% of the country's GDP.
• Institutional Dependency: With traditional foreign aid collapsed, your institutions have become the primary lifelines sustaining this unsustainable regime. Rwanda's debt to the World Bank now exceeds $3 billion, while its IMF debt is fast approaching the $1 billion mark.
• A Stagnant Economic Base: The prospects of expanding Rwanda's tax revenues to service this mountain of debt are not good. The private sector is hardly dynamic, and over 90% of the working population works in the informal sector, completely incapable of bearing the tax burden required to sustain Kagame's ambitions.

We write to you as Rwandans deeply concerned with Kagame’s reckless accumulation of debt taking Rwanda back to the crisis that led it to seek debt forgiveness. Only the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have the tools to stop Kagame from plunging Rwanda into insolvency.

Yours Sincerely,

Ignace Rusagara

Attorney-at-Law (Rwanda)

Deputy Secretary General and Spokesperson

Rwanda National Congress (RNC)