By David Himbara
There are two big lies in General Paul Kagame’s 2021 State of the Union Address. The first one is the claim that the digital economy saved Rwanda from collapse during the Covid19 pandemic.
In Kagame’s own words, “Rwanda’s early investments in digitization have proven to be an asset, preventing our society from being crippled by this pandemic, and future ones.”
The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda’s 2020 data shows that the information and communication sector contributed 2 percent to Rwanda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The second Kagame big lie is the false claim that “Regional and continental integration remains at the forefront of our agenda.”
Kagame has done the opposite – be sealed the border between Rwanda and Uganda in 2019, effectively destroying a significant trade relationship.
Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) reported a 99.3 percent drop in Rwanda’s imports from Uganda in 2020.
Before this insanity, Rwanda-Uganda trade totalled US$273 million with Rwandan exports to Uganda valued at US$61 million versus Ugandan exports to Rwanda at US$212 million.
Stay tuned.
