Kigali, 25 March 2013
This morning at Urugwiro Village, President Kagame met with thirty three students from Stanford Business School along with Nobel Prize winning economist Myron Scholes. The trip led by four students is part of Stanford Global Study Trip and was focused on understanding the rapid growth rates taking place in Rwanda.
Speaking on his leadership and the plans Rwanda aims to achieve in the future, President Kagame told the students:
I am not the vision, I am only implementing the vision that we put together as a country. We
are working on building institutions that will last beyond any individuals and we are keeping our sight on where we want to be. As low as we sank, we have to believe we are the ones to get ourselves out. In the past, Rwanda was surviving on the generosity of the rest of the world. We want to be at global level where we work together, live together and value each other rather than be dependent.”
Following their interaction with President Kagame, student leader Eric Omwega told the press:
Rwanda is an inspiration to the rest of the world. The country has been able to overcome a very difficult history and has developed so much over the last 19 years. As we were coming from the airport, I was thinking this is a beacon of stability. A few of us are from Africa, we are very proud of Africa and we wanted to share that with others.
The students’ trip which also includes Kenya will serve as hands on experience in the student’s efforts to learn of the socio-economic changes taking place in East Africa which they believe can be attributed to investments in infrastructure, information technology, education and a variety of other sectors able to transform the economy. The students also hope to engage and contribute to the development of East Africa.
As part of this visit, the students will visit the Rwanda Development Board, the Genocide Memorial, the Global Health Corps- the health non-profit started by Barbara Bush, the ICT park, K-Lab and Carnegie Mellon University.