Rwanda’s macroeconomic performance over the past decade has been impressive, and the central bank governor says that developing the country’s bond markets is crucial to ensuring that remains the case.

Regional integration, a painstakingly slow process across most of Africa, has started to gain momentum in east Africa, removing some obstacles for investors.

A sovereign bond issue by Rwanda took the capital markets into uncharted territory, but the syndicate team at BNP Paribas found investors keen to seize the opportunity to diversify their portfolios.

Rwanda’s monetary authorities stood out from their east African peers in 2011 for managing to withstand the severe inflationary pressures buffeting the region. Claver Gatete, governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, explains how this was done and what the country's government is doing to lure more foreign direct investment.

Rwanda’s banks have benefited from the country’s rapid development since its genocide less than 20 years ago. With a high unbanked population and expectations of continued near double-digit economic growth, their rise is unlikely to slow soon. But the banks will have to boost their efficiency quickly if they want their profitability to match that of other east African lenders.