Rwanda Set To Host The 2020 Commonwealth Summit

TechInAfrica – The Commonwealth summit, which will be hosted on June 22 in 2020, set Rwanda as the host of the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Announced yesterday, as a leading destination for international conferences and summits in Africa, it’s a big win for Rwanda.

The capital, Kigali, was a former Belgian colony and initially francophone, and the country became a Commonwealth member at the 2007 summit in Kampala, with English join the official language in Rwanda. Kigali will serve its position for a big hospitality revenue, as the conference brings delegations and side events of civil society groups, and also the business leaders with their respective agenda. President Kagame said that his country will work to ensure adequate hospitality to ‘make everybody feel Rwanda is an extension of their home’. It will also benefit the East African Community (EAC) because this would be the first time after 12 years that the summit is returning to the region after Uganda hosted the 20th meeting back in 2007.

Leaders from all the member states will attend the summit, according to Rwandan President, Paul Kagame and the Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland. The summit will be presenting the theme Delivering A Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming, and the focus would largely on governance and rule of law, ICT, innovation, youth, energy, environmental conservation, and trade. Scotland also noted that the conference will be a good opportunity to engage in better policy discussion for the youth by leaders and that the present young demographic is a ‘real opportunity’.

“It’s going to be a very exciting chance for us to enable our young people to develop and deploy the skills they need so they can fulfill their potential,” the Commonwealth official said. “By connecting, innovating and transforming, the Commonwealth opens up scope for mobilizing the talent of people of all ages and backgrounds.”