By David Himbara
The World Economic Forum (WEF) used to love General Paul Kagame. And Kagame loves WEF. Their mutual love used to be expressed in WEF’s flagship index — the Global Competitiveness Index. The index measures such things as institutions, infrastructure, the economic and human capital. The Global Competitiveness Index used to flatter Kagame by falsely claiming that Rwanda is East Africa’s most competitive economy, Africa’s second most competitive economy, and the world’s 58th most competitive economy. WEF has become wiser. In its 2018 index, WEF dropped Rwanda from 58th to 108th ranking. It appears WEF finally conducted real research on Rwanda instead of a figment of the imagination.
The 2017 Index flattered Kagame that Rwanda’s economy was more competitive than even South Africa’s.
In the 2017 Global Competitiveness Index, African countries were ranked as follows:
- Mauritius (45th globally)
- Rwanda (58th globally)
- South Africa (61st globally)
- Botswana (63rd globally)
- Morocco (71st globally)
- Algeria (86th globally)
- Namibia (90th globally)
- Kenya (91st globally)
- Tunisia (96th globally)
- Egypt (100th globally)
The 2018 Index dropped Rwanda 50 positions from the 58th to the 108th ranking.
The African rankings in the 2018 Global Competitiveness Index are as follows — with Rwanda dumped to the 108th ranking:
- Mauritius (49th globally)
- South Africa (67th globally)
- Seychelles (74th globally)
- Morocco (75th globally)
- Tunisia (87th globally)
- Botswana (90th globally)
- Algeria (92nd globally)
- Kenya (93rd globally)
- Egypt (94th globally)
- Namibia (100th globally)
- Ghana (106th globally)
- Rwanda (108th globally)
The World Economic Forum is now wiser — Rwanda’s competitiveness is fake.
The World Economic Forum measures competitiveness by analyzing twelve pillars: 1) Institutions; 2) Infrastructure; 3) Macroeconomic environment; 4) Health and primary education; 5) Higher education and training; 6) Goods market efficiency; 7) Labor market efficiency; 8) Financial market development; 9) Technological readiness; 10) Market size; 11) Business sophistication; and 12) Innovation. It appears that WEF got embarrassed into realizing that Rwanda is not in Kenya’s league, let alone South Africa in any of the 12 pillars. WEF must have conducted real research — and realized Kagame’s economy is fake. Will Kagame dance at the next WEF meeting at Davos?
