ATI

COUNTRY PROFILE

Rwanda

Rwanda is a low-income country in East Africa. The Rwandan economy grew rapidly between 2000 and 2020, with an annual GDP growth rate of around eight percent. Rwanda is a low economic transformer, but it has made remarkable progress on all dimensions of DEPTH, with a particularly remarkable improvement in Human well-being.
CAPITAL CITY

Kigali

POPULATION (2022)

13.8 million

POPULATION GROWTH (2022)

2.3 %

GDP GROWTH (2022)

8.2 %

GDP PER CAPITA (2022)

US $966

Rwanda’s Performance on the African Transformation Index

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The overall African Transformation Index score measures the five dimensions of DEPTH.

Overall score

18.3 /100

Score change
+8.0

since 2000

At a glance
  • Rwanda is a low economic transformer with an overall ATI score of 18.3.
  • Despite its impressive economic growth, Rwanda is below the African average in all DEPTH dimensions and well below the overall African average of 30.3.
  • Still, Rwanda has made remarkable progress in all dimensions, particularly Human well-being, while its Diversification score has been helped by a deliberate move into services.
Score
/100
Change since 2000
Diversification
37.4
+8.2
Export competitiveness
7.8
+7.6
Productivity increases
4.1
+2.3
Technology upgrading
12.1
+4.3
Human well-being
30
+17.8

Diversification of production and exports measures countries’ capability to produce and export a widening array of goods and services.

Score

37.4 /100

Score change
+8.2

since 2000

At a glance
  • Rwanda is less diversified than most African economies, but it has also made more progress than almost any of its peers.
  • The economy has diversified away from agriculture towards the services sector, with recent growth fueled by investments in real estate, trade, tourism, and government services.
  • The country has made significant progress in diversifying its exports. Its five top export products (gold, coffee, tea, zirconium ore, and tin ore) made up 96 percent of total export share in 2000 but their share delinced to 61 percent in 2020.
 
 
 

Export competitiveness is measured as the ratio of a country’s share in the world’s exports of non-extractive goods and services to its share in world non-extractive GDP.

Score

7.8 /100

Score change
+7.6

since 2000

At a glance
  • Rwanda has seen greater improvements in this dimension than all other countries except for Morocco and Tunisia.
  • Improvements in Rwanda’s Export competitiveness score are in part due to the implementation of Rwanda’s National Export Strategy and the country’s export product differentiation.
  • Despite diversification into services, the economy remains vulnerable to swings in the price of primary commodities, which still represent a substantial part of its export earnings.

Productivity increases measure the value added per unit of labor in agriculture, manufacturing, and services.

Score

4.1 /100

Score change
+2.3

since 2000

At a glance
  • Starting from a very low base, Rwanda doubled its Productivity increases score between 2000 and 2020, but it remains far below the African average.
  • The government has taken several measures to stimulate manufacturing through the revival of Export Processing Zones, which increased the production of more specialized manufactured goods for export.
  • Between 2000 and 2010, the country made gains in productivity in the services sector through the widespread use of ICT, especially through e-health and e-government platforms.

Technology upgrading measures the medium-and high-technology content in total production activities and total commodity exports.

Score

12.1 /100

Score change
+4.3

since 2000

At a glance
  • Rwanda scores below most of its peers in Technology upgrading.
  • Despite some improvements between 2000 and 2020, the country’s progress has been inconsistent as the proportion of both medium- and high-level technology in exports and manufacturing have consistently risen and fallen.

Human well-being measures economic and social outcomes and enablers in terms of incomes, income inequality, formal employment, and female participation in formal labor markets.

Score

30.0 /100

Score change
+17.8

since 2000

At a glance
  • Rwanda has made more progress in Human well-being than any other country except Cabo Verde.
  • Despite sitting below the African average, Rwanda’s Human well-being score has consistently improved since 2004, backed by strong progress in all indicators and supported by two decades of rapid economic growth.
  • Unlike most of its peers, income inequality has fallen significantly since 2000.
  • Rwanda has also made sustained progress in ensuring a higher proportion of formal workers, although progress has leveled off somewhat since 2015.

Discover more from the ATI

ATI Scorecard

Explore the data behind the economic transformation progress of 30 African countries between 2000-2020.

Growth with DEPTH

Explore the ATI in DEPTH and see how African countries performed on each dimension between 2000-2020.

Methodology

Learn more about our methodology, sources, and how we calculate the index.

Country Profiles

To explore the results of the index in greater detail and provide context and analysis, the ATI report includes 11 case studies.

Downloads

Our Research & Analysis on Rwanda
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