GLPOST

Rwanda: Rise & Fall of Kagame-Diamond Bromance.

Rwanda: Rise & Fall of Kagame-Diamond Bromance.

By David Himbara

General Paul Kagame’s fantasy of turning Kigali into Africa’s banking hub and Bob Diamond’s dream of building an African banking powerhouse led to the bromance between the two. The Kagame-Diamond bromance began via Marc Holtzman who was an executive at Barclays’ Capital then led by Diamond. Holtzman was and remains very close to Kagame as indicated by the fact that Kagame made Holtzman the chairman of the board of the Bank of Kigali in 2009. In that year, Kagame entertained Diamond and his family in Rwanda, complete with helicopter tours of Nyungwe Forest National Park. The Kagame-Diamond bromance spectacularly took off from then onwards.

The Kagame-Diamond bromance saw Diamond’s acquisition of two Rwandan banks

The bromance met realities and collapsed

Exit mobile version