By Dr Charles Kambanda
Rwanda will lose close to $60 million annually. However, Trump administration will still send about $200 million to Rwanda under Economic Assistance program. Obama used to send more than $200 million to Rwanda, annually. Military cooperation funding for Rwanda will be kept to bare minimum.
Unfortunately, Rwanda’s most “juicy” peacekeeping mission , the Haiti Peacekeeping mission, will close in October, 2017. The Central African Republic and South Sudan peacekeeping missions are expected to downsize.These two peacekeeping missions are a substantial source of foreign currency for Rwanda.
Trump Administration has increased funding for Somalia and South Sudan but reduced funding for Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. Burundi, which previously received less than $2 million from the US, is not on the list of recipients.
I hope, probably against hope, that the European Union will be more ” generous” to Rwanda.
Going by (a) the political and economic challenges the EU is faced with and (b) the fact that European Union was against Kagame’s maneuvers around the Constitution for his ‘ life presidency’, expecting more money or the same amount of money in foreign aid from the EU would be unrealistic.
Because the US has put screws unto the UN, there will very little money through UN organizations such as UNDP. With this tap turned off, Rwanda will have to pick the bill for a substantial number of projects UN organization have been running in the country or else … That’s jaw breaking for a country like Rwanda that spends about $ 2 trillion but produces a mere $300 million annually.
Kagame’s net worth stands at $500 million. Will he ” repatriate” some of that money he stole from Rwandans?
As of now, Rwanda doesn’t have any financial asset. The country depends on borrowing; mortgaging the sovereign!
