REPORT | Why the Kigali International Financial Center in Rwanda Was Ranked 3rd Financial Center in Africa in 2023

Rwanda’s Kigali International Financial Center (KIFC) is one of the reasons the small East African nation is one of the leading sources of investment on the continent as of 2023.

KIFC has been ranked 3rd in Africa and 2nd in Sub-Sahara Africa in the latest 2023 Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 34).

Investors under the KIFC are granted a preferential corporate income rate and exemption from withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalty payments, in addition to being facilitated to legally and operationally set up their various enterprises and activities, in under 6 months.

“What Rwanda is doing is developing an international financial centre with a clear proposition to investors: direct access to multiple African markets and a centralized, holding presence for investors to locate all their financial activities across Africa, within a safe, fully compliant, transparent environment underpinned by the rule of law and serviced by Rwanda’s fast growing, high quality financial services industry.”

– Kigali International Financial Center

According to Jean-Marie Kananura, Chief Investment Officer, Rwanda Finance Limited, through KIFC, various structures are facilitated to set up in Rwanda. These include:

• Investment Funds
• Holding Companies
• Special Purpose Vehicles
• FinTechs
• Trusts
• PEs
• VCs
• Global Trading Companies

In a recent interview, Kananura highlighted some of the steps the center is taking to increase business competitiveness and set-up processes.

“To make Rwanda as a preferred destination for investors means we must have better legal framework, develop necessary skills and enhance our promotion activities,” he said. “We have 16 tax treaties in force to enable firms setting up in Rwanda for instance avoid being taxed twice, which is an incentive,” he noted.

The center is also welcoming to startups, offering them a supportive environment to nurture and develop their business ideas.

“One of the startups which has benefited is the America’s Zipline, it designs, manufactures, and operates the world’s largest instant logistic and delivery system.”

At present, the financial sector constitutes 3 percent of Rwanda’s economy. However, the government has set ambitious targets for the future. By 2035, their goal is to elevate the financial services sector’s contribution to the GDP to 5.2 percent, and by 2050, they aim for an even more substantial contribution, targeting 11.8 percent.

The common theme for KIFC incentives is that for investors to access them, they have to fulfill both minimum economic substance requirements and also demonstrate that management and control resides in Rwanda.

According to KIFC, for example, for management and control, investors will need to demonstrate the following:

• At least (minimum quorum) one director or twenty-five percent of directors reside in Rwanda
• 50% of board members should be in Rwanda for board meetings. Virtual meetings are acceptable
• Board meetings for strategic decisions should occur in Rwanda
• Board resolutions should be in Rwanda for safe keeping
• The Board must include at least two professional or qualified Rwandan residents
• A physical office of the company in Rwanda
• At least 30% of the professional staff are Rwandan
• Threshold set for minimum annual expenditure in Rwanda
• Threshold set for total assets to be consolidated in Rwanda

Since making its debut on the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), which assesses the competitiveness of financial centers worldwide, KIFC has consistently maintained 5th position in Africa with the most recent year [2023] seeing it jump to 3rd position.

KIFC ranks 3rd in Africa among such financial jurisdictions measured by the index below:

1.) Casablanca

2.) Mauritius

3.) Kigali

4.) Johannesburg

5.) CapeTown

6.) Lagos

Read / Download the full 2023 Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI).

About Global Financial Centers Index


The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) is a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centres based on over 29,000 financial centre assessments from an online questionnaire together with over 100 indices from organisations such as the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The first index was published in March 2007. It has been jointly published twice per year by Z/Yen Group in London and the China Development Institute in Shenzhen since 2015,[1][2] and is widely quoted as a top source for ranking financial centres.