Rwandan remittance inflows rose 26 percent to $71.4 million for the first 5 months of 2009, from $56.8 for the same period last year, in spite of the global economic downturn, Reuters cited the central bank as saying today. Rwanda's central bank governor, Francois Kanimba, said remittances to the central African country have grown around 25-30 percent annually since 2006 and have continued to climb against earlier predictions of decline this year. Kanimba said money sent home to relatives in Rwanda in 2009 would likely total between $160-200 million, making it Rwanda's second biggest foreign exchange earner after tourism which brought in $214 million in 2008. "We were surprised that in 2009, compared to 2008, there was some significant increase," he told Reuters by telephone. "A deeper investigation is needed to understand the underlying factors behind this increase." According to the African Development Bank, remittances, as well as aid inflows and foreign direct investment, have risen in Rwanda as a result of reforms and improved economic conditions. Last year, Rwanda pushed through several banking sector reforms on licensing, corporate governance, capital adequacy and the method for calculating liquidity ratios, Kanimba said. "We passed a new banking law designed to bring regulation 100 percent in line with international standards. The whole sector has to be updated accordingly," Kanimba said. Abdulrazak Ali Siraji, country manager of Dahabshiil, a Somalia-based wire transfer service that recently opened a branch in the capital Kigali, said stiff banking regulations had put it off previously. He said his company was now, however, looking to capitalise on the estimated one million Rwandans living in the diaspora. His company aims to transfer $3 million per month by the end of 2010, up from $500,000 per month currently. "Monetary regulation was very complicated. Or we would have come to Rwanda a very long time ago," Siraji said. Rwanda's economy grew 11.2 percent in 2008 on the back of strong growth in the agricultural sector, coffee, tea, tourism, and minerals.
