Who is Soraya Hakuziyaremye, the newly appointed first female Governor of Rwanda’s Central Bank? 

Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame has appointed Ms. Soraya Munyana Hakuziyaremye as the first female Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, which is a promotion from her initial role of  Deputy Governor since March, 2021.

Prior to that, she served as Rwanda’s Minister of Trade and Industry from October 2018 to March 2021; where she oversaw the implementation of the “Made in Rwanda” policy, contributing to the 9% average annual growth of the industry sector and increase in exports. 

During her time as Minister of Trade, she also served as Chair of the East African Community Sectoral Council on Investment and Trade, contributing to the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA), as well as in the National Covid-19 Taskforce, overseeing the management of domestic trade and cross-border trade flows during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Before her tenure as Cabinet Member, Soraya worked as Vice President in the Financial Institutions/Financial Markets Risk Department at ING Bank in London from 2016 to 2018. She also worked in various senior risk management positions at BNP Paribas Group in Paris, Fortis Bank and the Bank of New York Mellon in Brussels from 2002 to 2011, and later on as a Senior Advisor to Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2014. 

She was a board member of Ngali Holdings as well as co-founder of the Brussels-Africa Hub, an international non-profit organization, led by Banking and Finance leaders with the mission to facilitate sustainable and responsible investments towards Africa. 

Soraya  brings a rich experience in global banking and financial advisory. She holds a postgraduate degree in International Management from the Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Management at Arizona State University in the U.S., as well as a Masters in Business Engineering (Ingénieur de Gestion) from the Solvay Business School at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium.

She is also an alumna of the Executive Public Leaders Program at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.

She will be deputised by Dr. Justin Nsengiyumva who holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Leicester, and worked as Senior Economic Advisor at the Office of Rail and Road in the UK Government since April 2016.