Cherie Blair leads investment delegation to Rwanda
Cherie Blair CBE QC, British lawyer and founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, paid a courtesy visit to the RDB (Rwanda Development Board) today where she met with senior government officials.
She is leading a 9-person delegation of senior women business leaders who are in the country for four days.
The investor mission is the first all-women’s investor mission to Rwanda and to Africa, which has been organized by Invest Africa US, with Mrs. Blair leading the delegation on its behalf. Later in the afternoon, the group listened to pitches from a number of local business entrepreneurs.
Clare Akamanzi, the RDB Chief Executive Officer, alongside representatives from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ministry of ICT & Innovation, Capital Markets Authority and the Private Sector Federation took them through Rwanda’s economic growth trends and development strategy along with investment opportunities in Rwanda in tourism, ICT, agriculture and manufacturing.
The delegation consists of;
- Barbara Ann Bernard, Founder and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Bahamas-based asset management firm, Wincrest Capital;
- Fatoumata Ba, a Tech Entrepreneur and Venture Capital Investor, currently the Founder and Executive Chair of Janngo and Managing Partner of Janngo Capital, based in France and Cote D’Ivoire;
- Christina Juhasz, the CIO and founding partner of WWB Asset Management, a subsidiary of Women’s World Banking, based in the United States;
- Raja Jandhyala, the Founder and President of YAATRA Ventures, an investment platform that develops solutions for complex economic challenges with partners and deploys capital in value-added infrastructure investment opportunities in key value chains for productivity and growth based in the United States;
- Noelle-Claire LeCann, an impact investor and the Managing Principal of AlphaSource Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisory where she manages a team of investment professionals focused on environmental and social impact investing based in the United States;
- Aubrey Hrubry, the Founder and a Partner of Baylis Emerging Markets, a specialist private equity investor in African Markets based in the United States;
- Mary Fanaro, the CEO and Founder of OmniPeace Foundation based in the United States. Mary also acts as a private investor within the education sector in Africa;
- Tunuka Gray, the Deputy Head of CrossBoundary’s East Africa investment advisory team, based in the Nairobi, Kenya office;
- Julie Hinks, Special Projects Director at Symbion Group, an investor in the power sector in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
