Rwandan president highlights technology investment for economic recovery from COVID-19 impact

Source: Xinhua | 2020-04-16

Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Tuesday stressed the importance of technology investment as his country is trying to ease the economic impact by COVID-19.

"What we are focused on in Rwanda is to try and revitalize our economy, and then move ahead," Kagame told over 400 investors from across the globe at the Invest in Africa Webinar, where they discussed the impact of COVID-19 and measures to sustain the economy.

Working and teaching children from home during the pandemic has shown Rwanda's weaknesses in technology, which can become one area of investment, said Kagame, adding that both the government and private sector have to do their part.

The landlocked country has been put under a nationwide lockdown since March 21 to contain the spread of the coronavirus. As of Tuesday evening, it has reported 134 confirmed cases, of whom 49 have recovered.

The Rwandan government and International Monetary Fund have revised Rwanda's economic growth projections for 2020 to 5.1 percent from the initial forecast of 8 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.