Rwandan Franc Depreciated Against the Ugandan Shilling by 10.9 Percent in 2020. Why?

National Bank of Rwanda head office in Kigali

By David Himbara

Dear General Paul Kagame, the National Bank of Rwanda’s data indicates that in the year ending June 2020, the Rwandan currency deprecated against the Uganda Shilling by 10.9 percent.

Why?

Might this not be due to your reckless closure of the Rwanda-Uganda border in 2019? The National Bank of Rwanda further announced that the Rwandan Franc “weakened against all regional currencies.”

This is not good news, Sir. The Rwandan Franc depreciated against the Tanzanian Shilling by 5.3 percent; against the Kenyan Shilling by 4.1 percent; and against the the Burundian Franc by 1.7 percent.

This is no doubt attributable to your strange belief that politics is divorced from economics – closing an international border and therefore locking out goods from major trading partners have consequences. Stay tuned.