Kigali, 15 March 2012- The Rwanda Development Board recently announced that business registration now only takes six (6) hours from 24 hours. This reform is part of the comprehensive business reform agenda that will create a foundation for making it much easier for the business community to operate in Rwanda.
The registration process and the requirements remain the same. The cost for registration remains at Rwf 15.000 (US$ 25) while online registration is free of charge. The Business Development Centres (BDCs) continue to facilitate business registration in the Provinces for clients who are unable to travel to Kigali.
“This proves the Government’s commitment to improve service delivery and ease doing business in Rwanda in order to further develop the Private sector,” said Louise Kanyonga, the Registrar General while officially announcing the change in time for business registration.
“We put the private sector at the forefront when we are reforming, therefore we are committed to reducing any possible hurdles they face,” Kanyonga added.
This was announced coincidentally during the study tour to RDB of Senators and Members of Parliaments from Africa, Europe and Development Partners from World Bank, IMF and ADB. The Senators and MPs were in Rwanda on a 3day high-level meeting of international parliamentarians organised by the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB).
The conference dubbed “Private sector development in Africa: Cornerstone for sustainable growth,” was opened by the President of Rwanda, HE Paul Kagame and other notable key Speakers were Obiageli Ezekwesili, the WB Vice President for Africa; and Arnold Ekpe, the President of ECOBANK, Alain Destexhe, MP, Chair of the Parliamentary Network and Roger Nord, Deputy Director, IMF’s Africa Department. The conference also discussed how countries can improve their ranking in international evaluations, notably in the global Doing Business report.
Most high ranking countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business report register their businesses in 8 hours. Rwanda currently ranks 8th in the world in the ease of starting a business considering the procedures, time, and cost. The Doing Business Project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 183 economies and selected cities at the sub-national and regional level. Launched in 2002, the project looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle.
The business reforms are part of the government’s wider efforts to promote Rwanda as a business and investment destination, in order to drive the growth of the private sector and generate wealth.
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