The Rwanda government is on track to deal with the trade imbalance. The Made-in-Rwanda programme has made a significant contribution towards realising this goal.

Statistics from the Ministry of Trade and Industry show that since the start of Made-in-Rwanda campaign in 2015, Rwanda’s total exports have increased by 69 per cent, from $559 million to $944 million in 2017 while total imports decreased by 4 per cent, from $1.849 billion in 2015 to $1.772 billion in 2017. As a result, the total national trade deficit has decreased by 36 per cent since 2015.

Rwanda had a trade deficit (imports outweighing exports) of $1,017.32 million as of September 2018, according to central bank statistics. This is largely because the country does not produce everything that it needs.

To put this into perspective, Rwanda imports mainly food products, machinery and equipment, construction materials, petroleum products and fertilisers. Moreover, its exports are dominated by traditional products such as coffee, tea and minerals like tin, coltan, wolfram and cassiterite.