The Head of State said the government made deliberate efforts to change the mindset of its citizens on interventions needed to deal with hunger and other challenges including diseases.
'When we started this process of rebuilding, the thing we discovered we had to do was to change the thinking of our own people. You could see our people were just sitting back and knowing that if there is hunger, somebody is going to bring food. If there is a disease, somebody is going to come and help. So we got used to being helped from outside. And that really worsened things,' President Kagame stated.
The change of the mindset, he said, helped empower the citizens to create wealth and solve common challenges in the Rwandan society.
'We emphasized that so much and we had many examples to show for it, to show how we need to move on from that. Given the possibility, given the tools, they started doing things themselves. Help from outside will always be welcome, or may be needed. But it should come building on something you are trying to do yourself,' he added.
The President was speaking during the first Amujae High-Level Leadership Forum which kicked off in Kigali on Friday, April 19, 2024.
In attendance were former presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Catherine Samba Panza of the Central African Republic.
The forum brings together three cohorts of Amujae leaders from across the continent for discussions that contribute to their mentorship and preparation for high-level leadership positions.
The forum coincides with Rwanda marking 30 years since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, which resulted in the loss of more than one million lives and damage to property, severely denting the country's economy.
President Kagame recently noted that the country had defied the odds to record tremendous growth over the last three decades.
Speaking during an engagement with the media on April 8, the President affirmed that with a favorable political environment, Rwanda's economy will continue to soar, reaching five times its current potential.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
