Rwanda ranks among the fastest growing economies that have recorded sustained and widespread economic growth in Africa, according to Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa. 

He attributes the good performance to existence of government accountability and implementation of good policies.

"The important characteristic of the recent growth experience of Africa is that it is quite broad-based that even landlocked countries, resource poor countries, were growing better than 4%. When you look at some of our fastest growing countries like Uganda and Rwanda, they are both landlocked and until recently, not very resource rich either," says Devarajan

Devarajan praised the government for instituting programs that do not only generate more resources to social sectors, but also make those resources more productive.

"Rwanda has this result-based financing programme that actually encourages and creates incentives for doctors to show up and availability of medicines- this can lead to faster progress," he says.

Despite the impact of the global financial crisis, Rwanda maintained a positive economic growth at 5.5% in 2009.