Over 73,000 Private Businesses Registered in 2024

The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) reports that 73,317 new private businesses were registered in Rwanda in 2024, reflecting a continued surge in entrepreneurship across the country.

Of these newly registered businesses, 54% were founded by women, highlighting their growing confidence and active participation in the investment landscape. Specifically, 22,736 of the businesses were registered by Rwandans, with women representing 33% of this group.

These figures demonstrate ongoing efforts to uphold gender equality in the private sector, encouraging women to engage in investment activities.

Rwanda has implemented various programs to support women and youth in their economic empowerment, offering financial assistance, training, and capacity-building to help them start and grow their businesses. Some financial institutions provide loans to women and youth without requiring collateral, support their projects, offer investment training, and build their skills, helping shift societal perceptions about working with these groups.

In total, new investments registered in 2024 amounted to $3.2 billion (over 4,528 billion Rwandan Francs), up from $2.4 billion in 2023. The majority of this investment—77.9%—was in industries, finance, insurance, and real estate.

Compared to the previous year, registered investment activities increased by 23.8%, rising from 91,878 in 2023 to 113,748 in 2024. Kigali alone accounted for 75.4% of new investments, totaling over $2.47 billion (more than 3,493 billion Rwandan Francs) invested in projects within the city.

Rwanda remains one of the leading African countries in investment facilitation, enabling business registration in a single day, supported by infrastructure that makes it easier for entrepreneurs to start and operate businesses nationwide.

Separately, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) released a report in June 2024 showing that the number of registered businesses nearly doubled between 2014 and 2023, rising from 154,236 to 269,326.

According to the report, 95.9% of these businesses were privately owned. Additionally, 2,017 were domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 656 were international NGOs, 2,496 were cooperatives, 2,047 were public-private partnerships, and 3,830 were government-run commercial enterprises.