10 December 2018

·Frank Rijsberman, Global Green Growth Institute Director General

·Amadou Hott, Vice-President, Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth, African Development Bank

·Fellow Ministers and Colleagues

·Ladies and gentlemen

Good afternoon!

I am pleased to join you for this important discussion on the Green Growth Readiness Assessment in Africa. I would like to thank the Global Green Growth Institute and the African Development Bank for selecting Rwanda as one of seven countries to be part of this exciting initiative.

I also welcome my counterparts from Gabon, Mozambique, Tunisia, Kenya, Senegal and Morocco who were selected to take part in this assessment and who have provided valuable information on the status of green growth in their countries.

Just one week ago, Rwanda hosted the inaugural Africa Green Growth Forum where policymakers, investors, business leaders, development partners and civil society representatives from around the world met to discuss the progress, opportunities and lessons learned from implementing green growth across the continent.

During the Forum, we were glad to host delegates from the other countries involved in the study to discuss the initial findings. At that meeting and throughout the Forum, the role of the private sector was once again highlighted as a critical factor in achieving the kind and scale of green growth we want.

In striving for green growth, however, we often only have examples not suited for our specific country contexts. With the Africa Green Growth Readiness Assessment, however, countries will now be able to learn from peers in the region with similar agro-ecological conditions, economies, and challenges in order to share lessons learned and adopt best practices.

Distinguished guests,

Rwanda is glad to be part of the assessment to share our experience and learn from others. Over the last six years, we have been implementing our green growth and climate resilience strategy. We are pleased with the progress we have made, but we know there is much still to be done to make green growth a priority for all sectors of our economy. Through the assessment, we look forward to understand more about our weaknesses and the gaps in our approach to green growth.

We will continue to pursue and support discussion platforms and similar initiatives such as this to build a community of stakeholders to drive green growth and sustainable development, both at home and across Africa.

I encourage you to continue the conversation after today’s event so that we may forge new partnerships, strengthen our existing collaborations, identify gaps, and act on new opportunities as well as tackle any challenges that lie ahead.

To conclude, I would like to congratulate the teams at AfDB and GGGI for this important initiative. We look forward to work together to realize green growth across Africa.

Thank you for your kind attention.