Our People

Mr. Rutabana is a well-known Rwandan banking executive, turnaround strategist, and experienced investment professional with experience of over 18 years. He has strong knowledge in investment management including identification, due diligence, appraisal, negotiation, structuring, monitoring and exit of investments. He has deep experience in the Financial Sector (in Development Banking, Commercial Banking, Private Equity, and Funds Management environment), risk and portfolio management, as well as talent/people management. He has a strong knowledge of the African, East African, and Rwandan business and financial environment including regulation, competitive landscape, and the macro-economic environment. Eric has held senior positions at BPR Atlas Mara, I&M Bank, and KCB Bank, as well as at the BPI Rwanda SME Fund where he was Country Manager and Chief Investment Officer. At BPR-Atlas Mara, Eric was the Country Head of Corporate and Investment Banking and led the firm as acting CEO until the end of 2017. From December 2017 to December 2019, he was CEO of the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) where he led a major turnaround/restructuring initiative, significantly improved portfolio quality, and brought the bank back to profitability. Currently, he is Deputy group CEO of the Milbridge Group, a manufacturer and trader of a wide variety of construction materials and products, where he is responsible for the group’s operations across East Africa. He holds an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Rwanda and earned his MBA degree in Finance from the Maastricht School of Management, Maastricht, the Netherland

Edward KADOZI, Ph.D has the privilege of combining industry work and academia. He has over 10 years of professional experience in Capacity Development, employability skills development, labor market interventions, economics of migration in Africa, and policy analysis. He is a Senior Analyst at Rwanda Development Board (RDB). He provides technical and strategic advice to the RDB, public, and private sectors in areas of capacity development, skills development, and employment interventions. Edward has extensive professional and teaching experience in policy and strategy formulation as well economic analysis in Rwanda. He is the founder of the Centre for Development Policy (CDP). Edward has/continues extensively worked on the contribution of Diaspora in economic development in SSA countries. His research work is in the economics of remittances and Brain Drain/Gain in Africa, institutional economics, policy analysis, human capital development, and employment interventions. He is a visiting lecturer of economic policies, environmental economics, and Development theories and strategies at the University of Rwanda and Kigali Independent University in the masters’ program. Since 2013, Edward is a lead trainer of Policy Formulation and Policy Analysis at Rwanda Management Institute. He is an external supervisor of Masters’ students of International Development program at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands who conduct their research projects in Africa. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands in the Political economy of development and his Master’s degree in public policy from Tsinghua University, China. He received a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Rwanda.

Dr. Ggombe Kasim Munyegera is an Economist, consultant, and co-founder of the Center for Development Policy (www.cdpafrica.org). He holds a Ph.D. and MA in Development Economics obtained from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Japan, and a BA in Economics obtained from Makerere University, Uganda. His areas of research are financial sector development, private sector development, trade, agriculture and rural development, gender, disability and social inclusion, and climate change. Kasim has also engaged in the implementation and evaluation of multi-stakeholder development projects in East Africa. His evaluation experience covers government programs and policies including Rwanda’s Vision 2020 and the National Strategy for Transformation as well as several development interventions like Grofin financial instruments for SMEs in Rwanda (with Ecorys Netherlands), the menstrual hygiene management project in Uganda (with Global Bridge Network), the air pollution monitoring project in Rwanda (with Japan Weather Association), capacity development interventions in Rwanda (with UNDP Rwanda), among others. He has provided consultancy services to government institutions and international organizations like UNCDF Rwanda, UNDP Rwanda, UNECA, UNU-WIDER, ILO, OECD, IGC, Ecorys, and Japan Weather Association, among others. Prior to joining the consultancy, Kasim served as Country Economist for the IGC Rwanda office, where he offered policy advice to government institutions in the areas of agriculture, trade, private sector development, financial sector development, and digital economy. He has authored several journal publications, book chapters, policy papers, and policy briefs and he is a reviewer for several international journals. Besides research, Kasim is a trainer of econometrics/statistics, research methods, and data analysis using STATA, EViews, SPSS, R, and Microsoft Excel for various ministries, universities, organizations, and individuals in Japan, Rwanda, and Uganda. He also offered, on a part-time basis, lectures on Advanced Econometrics and Advanced Microeconomics at the African Center of excellence in Data Science of the University of Rwanda. Kasim is passionate about the integration of evidence and research in policy processes in Africa as a tool to maximize policy impact and effectiveness.

Herbert holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Master in Business Law from the University of Rwanda (UR) and a Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa from the University of Pretoria – South Africa. Herbert also holds a Certificate in International Commercial Arbitration from the London Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He works with MRB Attorneys and heads the department of Corporate and Commercial Affairs.

He possesses hands-on experience and has a strong passion for corporate law, business and commercial law, land and international private law where he has fairly published and extensively advised. Particularly, he takes charge of corporate assignments, carrying out negotiations, related legal research, legal advisory work, legal audits and due diligence, drawing, and analysis of security instruments as well as the creation of securities for Banks and other financial institutions. He has also extensively negotiated business deals involving international transactions, participated in government delegation in the negotiations around harmonization of the East Africa Community (EAC) commercial laws; joint ventures for local and International companies, supply contracts, Labour agreements, and many others.

He was one of the founding partners of Fountain Law Chambers and a Managing Partner, where he advised and represented several corporate clients in Rwanda in different transactions. He has acquired considerable exposure and experience in this respect. He is also familiar with most of the national, regional, and international legal regimes – a quality that has allowed Herbert to work as a university lecturer at the Faculties of Law – UR and the Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali (INILAK). He is a member of the Rwanda Bar Association, the East African Law Society (EALS), and a member of the Pan African Lawyers Union. Herbert is a native speaker of Kinyarwanda and has an excellent command of English and a working knowledge of French and Swahili.

Mr. Emmanuel is a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) and a member of ICPAR, with an MBA in Finance, and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting Science. Emmanuel is a certified microfinance expert, a qualification he acquired from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. Emmanuel is a seasoned banker with over 18 years of experience and over 15 years in senior managerial roles within the Rwandan banking industry. He is currently the Chief Finance officer for Cogebanque plc. Prior to Joining Cogebanque in 2017, Emmanuel was the CFO at Urwego Opportunity Bank (part of the Opportunity International network) for 4 years. Prior to the role of CFO, he was the Chief Risk Management Officer for a period of 3 years and before that he was the Chief Internal Auditor for 3 years in the same bank. Through his career development, Emmanuel has gained immense experience in the financial sector, ranging from financial planning and management, treasury management, strategic planning, and implementation as well as Audit and risk management. Mr. Emmanuel assumed the role of Acting CEO at Cogebanque plc, for a period of four months after being appointed by the Board of Directors on December 31, 2020. Prior to the banking sector, Mr. Emmanuel worked at the Office of the Auditor General of Rwanda where he audited different public institutions for 2 years, which he joined after serving as an accountant at the National University of Rwanda.

Glorieuse Uwizeye is an Assistant Professor at Western University in the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College, with a primary appointment in the Department of Anthropology. She is a Mental Health Nurse who obtained her Ph.D. in Nursing from the University of Illinois in Chicago, a Bachelor of Nursing Honors (mental health), and a Master’s degree in Nursing (mental health) at the University of KwaZulu Natal/South Africa. She is interested in studying the intersecting impacts of political, socioeconomic, and environmental factors on development and health. Her research program focuses on the health impacts of genocide against the Tutsi and epigenetic mechanisms linking prenatal exposure to genocide or genocidal rape and adulthood health outcomes. She has held key positions at the Rwanda Ministry of Health, USAID US Embassy in Rwanda, FHI 360, and Association Mwana Ukundwa.

Mrs. Niyibizi is an economist with more 15 years of economic research and familiar with a wide range of macroeconomic policy issues. Peace worked at the National Bank of Rwanda, where she contributed to the implementation of the monetary policy and financial sector development. Currently, she is an Economist at the World Bank Group, in the Macroeconomic, Trade and Investment Practice. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Newcastle (Australia)