There is something peculiar going on in the country. There is one conference after another every week in Kigali, which means more foreign exchange for the country.

Rwanda has managed to position itself in a unique way that enables it to attract international conferences from different countries and organisations.

This has helped it to inch closer to its goal of becoming the region’s conference tourism hub and is projected to collect $74 million this year from $42 million made from 192 conferences in 2017.

The country has been chosen to be the second country in the East African Community — after Uganda — to host the Commonwealth Heads of State Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2020.

Preparations

The UK Commonwealth envoy, Philip Parham, was recently in the country for a three-day visit, to discuss preparations for 2020 CHOGM with government officials.

“The CHOGM 2018 was hosted in London in April, and Rwanda will host the next meeting in 2020. We want to ensure that the UK hands over the baton in the most effective way,” he told Rwanda Today.

With the UK expected to soon leave the European Union, experts say that the western power will look into turning the Commonwealth from an association of friendly English speakers into a strong trading bloc.

Mr Parham said that although the Commonwealth is not a trading bloc, there are specific efforts among member states to increase the levels of trade and investment between them.

“Brexit is about departing from the EU, which is a very formal process. The Commonwealth is about a free and voluntary association with 53 member states collaborating across a wide range of areas,” he said.

The British Envoy to Rwanda, Jo Lomas, added that the UK will look to sign its own “anything but arms” trade deal with the East African Community (EAC) once it officially leaves the EU.

She said that this position is due to the unpredictable outcome of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that stalled between Europe and the EAC.

“If there was to be an EPA agreement coming into force in the next couple of years, then the UK would just transition to that. If that does not happen then the UK will implement its only legislation on ‘anything but arms,” said Ms Lomas, adding, “Either way, the main point of that is to ensure that Rwanda and other countries do not suffer disruptions to trade.”

Rwanda joined the Commonwealth in 2009, becoming only the second country — after Mozambique — that is not formerly a British colony to join the association.

Problematic relationship

When the country joined the English speaking bloc, it signalled a problematic relationship with France, which was escalated by that country’s role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

English was made an offi- cial language in Rwanda, alongside French and Kinyarwanda.  Officially the change  was to reposition Rwanda as a member of the East African Community, an organisation made up mostly of English-speaking coun- tries as well as the Commonwealth.

First forward to 2018 and the situation is totally different. Rwanda is now both a member to both the French-speaking Francophonie Organisation, and also maintains a presence in the Commonwealth.

Now, the country’s former foreign affairs minister, Louise Mushikiwabo is the Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Francophonie, and President Kagame is next in line as chair-in-chief of the Commonwealth, replacing the British Prime Minister in 2020.

Both positions are influential in those two leading blocs and are expected to help boost the country’s image even further internationally.