CMI’s sex-for-grades Professor Kambanda spins Moody’s global ratings on Rwandan economy

Following Moody’s and S&P credit rating statement, the infamous “Sex-for-grades professor” Charles Kambanda issued a laughably pathetic post that fails to mention that Rwanda’s economy strength downgrade came as a result of many factors of uncertainty and weakness brewing both within Africa and the world.

The problem with Kambanda’s illogical argument is that he ignores the facts and bets about the future of the Rwandan economy basing on some fallacious theories. As noted by Moody’s, Rwanda has a track record of effective policy implementation and reform which helped it to grow its economy by 9.4 percent in 2019.

Looking forward, economic recovery of Rwanda is expected to begin by year’s end, and GDP growth for 2020 is projected at about 2.0 percent given the fact that the government is implementing corrective policies to stabilize the debt burden when the economy recovers from the coronavirus shock, ultimately preserving debt service capacity.

For instance, Rwandan government announced in April a US$900 million economic recovery plan (ERP) to support households, the private sector, and key infrastructure services to boost employment which will result to a projected growth of 6.3 percent in 2021.

Meanwhile CMI is wasting money paying Kambanda for their anti-Rwanda propaganda, when more than the quarter of the Ugandan population is back living below the poverty line, an increase from 21% at the beginning of the year . In addition, all that comes at a crucial time when Uganda’s external debt standing at more than US$8.59billion, which translates into slightly above Shs 31.7 trillion, against the current national budget of Shs 45.4trillion.

Rwanda is not like Uganda, the evidence lies in the records of the past two decades which show that Rwanda has used and serviced its debt efficiently leading to a big drop in debts while her GDP growth increased relatively. In other words, Rwanda’s effective use of debts has earned it trust from money lending institutions and the country has been able to balance its payment.