By David Himbara
Rwanda’s pension fund is invested in at least eight companies valued at US$45.3 million which have paid no dividends since the investment was made. The annual loss to the pension fund on the return on investment reached US$28 million in 2018. General Paul Kagame has long captured Rwanda’s pension fund – his ruling party companies were established with the pension money of up to 50 percent of equity. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is setting the captive free – external pressure has forced the Kagame government into promising to reform RSSB and make the agency transparent and accountable. It remains to be seen whether the captured pension fund is set free for good.
Every year, Rwanda’s Auditor General documents the enormous losses of the Rwanda Social Security Board, noting that the companies in which RSSB invests rarely pay dividends. In 2018, for example, the Auditor General reported that eight companies into which RSSB has invested Frw 43,537,948,867 or US$43.5 million “have not paid any dividend from the time of initial investment or establishment.” The Auditor-General indicated that the annual dividend losses to the pension fund in the eight companies “increased from Frw 19 billion (US$19 million) in 2017 to Frw 28 billion (US$28 million) in 2018.” With these vast losses to Rwanda’s pension…
