These figures appear in the Rwanda Statistical Yearbook 2025, which NISR released in late December 2025. The investment statistics were compiled from data sourced from the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
According to the report, both investment inflows and associated job creation showed a generally upward trend between 2017 and 2024, even though the period included several fluctuations. After starting at $1.67 billion in 2017, investment dropped to $1.14 billion in 2018 before recovering to $2.46 billion in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp decline to $1.3 billion in 2020. The highest level during the eight-year span came in 2021, when investment peaked at $3.75 billion. It then fell to $1.63 billion in 2022, rose again to $2.47 billion in 2023, and climbed to $3.27 billion in 2024.
Investment has consistently played a major role in employment generation. In 2017, it supported the creation of 37,548 jobs. The figure decreased to 24,946 jobs in 2018, rebounded to 35,715 in 2019, and then dropped to 24,675 in 2020 due to the pandemic's effects.
A strong recovery followed in 2021 with 48,369 jobs created. The highest annual total occurred in 2022, when 57,627 new positions were generated. Job creation eased to 40,198 in 2023 before rising once more to 51,635 in 2024.
The data clearly shows that investment remains one of the most important drivers of job creation in Rwanda, even when annual investment amounts vary.
Looking ahead, the Government of Rwanda's Second National Strategy for Transformation (NST2), which covers the years 2024 to 2029, sets an ambitious target of creating at least 250,000 new jobs every year.
Over the full five-year period, the plan aims to generate a total of 1.25 million new jobs across the country.
IGIHE
