How Rwanda built a credible, execution-ready digital public infrastructure (DPI)

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) — the interoperable systems of digital identity, payment rails, and governed data exchange that underpin modern economies — represents the most consequential structural investment opportunity on the African continent today.   

The article dives into how DPI’s maturity creates investable and deployable opportunity, using Rwanda as a case study. 

Infrastructure as compounding capital 

The 20th century taught development economists a durable lesson: countries that invested early in hard infrastructure — roads, ports, electrical grids — compounded those investments across decades, lowering the cost of economic exchange and unlocking private sector activity at scale.  

But the lesson for the 21st century is structurally identical but materially different.  

The infrastructure that now determines which economies accelerate and which stagnate constitutes digital, interoperable systems that make technology adoption economically productive.  

On March 9, Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) organised the country’s very first DPI day, supported by UNDP Rwanda and Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR). 

It was a moment of collective reflection by all the stakeholders on DPI’s role in sustainable economic transformation — the case for treating digital infrastructure with the same seriousness as physical infrastructure has never been stronger.  

Unlike proprietary platforms, DPI is designed as a public good: open, interoperable, and governed in the public interest.  

When these layers function together, the economic effects are compounded rather than additive.

Customer acquisition, identity verification, payment processing, and credit assessment — each a major capital and engineering cost in markets without DPI — become plug-and-play capabilities for builders and implementers. 

For investors and technology implementers, the implication is direct. In markets where DPI is functional, the cost and time required to build a financially viable digital product drop significantly. 

Africa’s DPI moment: Scale, urgency, and the structural gap 

Sub-Saharan Africa is undergoing a demographic and technological transition without historical parallel, with its working-age population is projected to approach one billion by 2035.  

Yet, the gains from these structural tailwinds remain partially captured. Africa’s $402-450 billion financing gap — estimated by the African Development Bank — persists not primarily because of a shortage of capital, but verifiable bankable projects. 

A functional digital identity system converts informality into verifiable economic presence. A fast payment rail converts cash transactions into traceable financial history. Governed data exchange allows that history to be used — with consent — as collateral for credit, insurance, and market access.  

In East and southern Africa alone, instant payment systems collectively processed about $1.98 trillion in transactions in 2024, according to AfricaNenda’s 2025 State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (SIIPS) report, covering 36 systems across 31 countries.  

The infrastructure is being built, but the question is whether it is built with institutional coherence, policy continuity, and execution track record that converts infrastructure into investable opportunity. 

The architecture of a DPI-ready market 

Not all DPI investments are equal.

From the perspective of a technology implementer or a funder seeking measurable outcomes, what distinguishes a market worth entering from one that remains aspirational is a specific combination of policy coherence, institutional capacity, regulatory credibility, and execution history. 

A DPI-ready market exhibits four characteristics.  

First, it possesses a defined legal and regulatory framework with regulators willing to listen and collaborate with all the industry participants — covering digital identity, data protection, payment licensing, telecom Infrastructure, and public-private engagement — that gives implementers confidence in the durability of rules.  

Second, it has demonstrated the capacity to procure, deploy, and operate digital systems at the population scale, producing measurable outcomes rather than pilot artifacts. 

Third, it operates with sufficient political continuity that multi-year investments are not subject to abrupt policy reversal.  

Fourth, it offers a clear pathway from national pilot to regional scale — either through its own market depth or through its position within a functioning regional economic architecture. 

Across Africa, a handful of markets are beginning to meet all four criteria. Among them, Rwanda stands out because of a quality far rarer and more valuable to investors and implementers: it consistently and demonstrably delivers on what it commits to. 

Rwanda as an implementation partner 

Rwanda is a landlocked economy of approximately 14.5 million people with a nominal GDP of $14.3 billion in 2024 — modest by continental standards, but growing with a consistency that outperforms peers.  

The economy expanded 8.9 per cent in 2024, per the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), driven by a 10 per cent expansion in services and a 25 per cent surge in information and communication services. Average real GDP growth over the past decade has been 6.9 per cent per annum. 

These figures are indicators of execution fidelity. Rwanda’s growth is structured, driven by deliberate investment in institutional capacity, regulatory frameworks, and digital infrastructure that create compounding returns.  

Rwanda’s digital transformation is embedded in successive binding national strategies.  

The National Strategy for Transformation (NST1, 2017–2024) in its digital space established digital ID, e-government, payment interoperability, and broadband rollout as sovereign priorities and produced measurable outcomes against each.  

The second NST (NST2, 2024–2029) sets equally specific targets: 100 per cent end-to-end digital government services and a Single Digital Identity for every resident by 2030.

Three case studies illustrate how this model works in practice. 

Case study 1: The Rwanda National Digital Payment System (RNDPS) — eKash 

Rwanda’s most significant recent DPI milestone is RNDPS 2.0, commercially known as eKash — a fully interoperable, open-source national payment switch launched at the Inclusive Fintech Forum (IFF) in Kigali in February 2025.  

The system was developed by RSwitch, Rwanda’s national electronic payments processor, in partnership with Wiredin, which is a Rwandan company providing software development services across the world. 

eKash represents a fundamental shift in how Rwanda owns and operates its core payment infrastructure. 

eKash is powered by Mojaloop — the open-source payment platform originally developed with technical and financial support from the Gates Foundation. It is now governed by the Mojaloop Foundation.  

The strategic and institutional guidance of AfricaNenda— the continent’s leading institution for inclusive instant payment systems — and its CEO, Dr Robert Ochola, were equally central to the initiative.  

AfricaNenda’s technical expertise in interoperability design and its continental network of payment system operators helped shape eKash’s architecture as a replicable African model, not merely a national one. 

Unlike RNDPS 1.0, which relied on proprietary vendor infrastructure, eKash is built on locally owned technical capacity.

It demonstrates that African countries can build, own, and operate national payment infrastructure using open-source technology — eliminating vendor dependency and enabling sovereign control over a core economic system.  

The system also enables person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments with settlement in under 15 seconds, interoperable across all banks and mobile wallets. 

SACCOs and microfinance institutions, historically excluded from formal payment rails, have been integrated as first-class participants.  

This is DPI at its most structurally significant: a government deploying open-source, openly governed infrastructure to bring the unbanked into the formal economy as a sovereign technical and economic decision. 

Case study 2: IremboGov — The digital government integration layer 

Rwanda’s IremboGov platform, launched in 2015 through a public-private partnership, now hosts over 600 government services in total with more than 240 paid for services - spanning civil registration, business licensing, immigration, land administration, health insurance, and taxation.

Monthly applications have reached between 300,000 and 500,000, with 80 per cent completed fully online. Applications processed grew from 5.9 million in 2022 to 8.4 million in 2023 — a 42 per cent annual increase. 

Cash represents between one to six per cent of transactions; mobile money is the dominant payment modality, directly integrated with Rwanda’s national payment infrastructure.  

Services that previously required multiple office visits over several days now are processed in under 24 hours.  

The platform supports 4,000 agent jobs and has become a benchmark model for GovTech deployment across the continent. 

What makes IremboGov significant beyond its service catalogue is its architecture: it functions as an integration layer, connecting Rwanda’s national identity infrastructure, payment rails, and sectoral data systems into a single citizen-facing surface.  

For technology implementers, it demonstrates the compounding effect of DPI investment. Each new service is added to the platform that inherits the identity, payment, and data capabilities already built into the foundation. 

Case study 3: The Single Digital Identity (SDID) — identity as universal infrastructure 

Rwanda’s Single Digital Identity (SDID) programme represents its most foundational DPI investment. 

Funded in part through the World Bank and supported Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project (RDAP), the SDID enables access to any service delivery in the country and it will provide a blend of smart cards, mobile ID, and other smart forms of verifiable digital identity enabling third-party authentication.  

Nationwide enrollment is actively underway following the February 2026 launch in Kigali and earlier provincial rollouts. 

The SDID is designed with inclusion as a core principle, covers citizens, legal residents, refugees, and stateless persons alike.  

Integration with IremboGov and Rwanda’s payment infrastructure means the SDID does not exist in isolation; it is the root credential that activates access to every downstream service.  

For technology vendors and systems integrators, the SDID allows commercial products to be built without reproducing identity infrastructure independently — dramatically reducing the cost of market entry and the time to first transaction. 

Where DPI unlocks investable value: Sector analysis 

For investors seeking deployment opportunities and technology vendors evaluating market entry, DPI infrastructure maturity creates specific, near-term commercial opportunities across five sectors: 

Fintech & alternative credit: Rwanda’s 5.8 million registered mobile money wallet holders carry transactional histories that alternative lenders can use to construct credit profiles for individuals with no formal banking relationship.  

The $450 billion continental SME financing gap is addressable precisely in markets where identity is verifiable, transaction data is accessible, and payment rails are open — as they are in Rwanda via eKash. 

Agritech & market linkages: Digital identity and payment rails enable traceability, producer verification, and input finance at a precision previously impossible.  

Platforms linking verified producer data to payment rails and market access can unlock working capital for smallholder farmers currently outside formal finance entirely.  

Rwanda’s agricultural sector — approximately 25 per cent of GDP — remains significantly underserved by formal market linkage services. Therefore, a market Credit Infrastructure system is a viable investment opportunity. 

Healthtech & interoperable records: Rwanda’s health sector continues to grow in usage of advanced technologies.

The Interoperable Electronic Medical records -E-Buzima, once integrated with the SDID and IremboGov create conditions for telemedicine platforms, health insurance technology, and supply chain digitisation to operate at national scale.  

NST2’s target to quadruple registered health workers creates specific opportunities for healthcare services to all the citizens. 

Trade, logistics & cross-border payments: Rwanda’s aspiration as East Africa’s trade hub is backed by the Bugesera SEZ, Kigali Innovation City, and regional commitments under the EAC and AfCFTA.  

Cross-border payment facilitation through the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) creates specific deployment opportunities for trade technology vendors. 

eKash’s interoperable architecture is designed to be extensible to cross-border settlement. 

GovTech & public service digitisation: Rwanda’s NST2 commits to 100 per cent end-to-end digital government services by 2030.  

The DPI center of Excellence under RISA, supported by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation provides a conducive environment to reduce implementation risk for vendors . 

The government’s API-first and Government Enterprise Service Bus (GESB) architecture means new service integrations are built to interoperate, not to be siloed. 

The investment case: Structure, risk, and return 

DPI investment in Africa is not without risk, and investors should approach the opportunity with calibrated realism.  

First, DPI maturity is uneven across the continent: a deployment model proven in Rwanda may require significant adaptation in markets where regulatory, identity, or payment infrastructure is absent or partial. 

Second, data governance and cybersecurity, while advancing — Rwanda launched its National Cybersecurity Strategy in August 2024 and operates an active Data Protection Office, through National Cyber Security Authority— remain works in progress regionally and are up and coming across the continent. 

Against these risks, Rwanda offers structural mitigators that make it an entry point to the African continent.  

Its regulatory continuity is backed by the binding NSTs framework, the institutional discipline of the National Bank of Rwanda and RURA, and a track record of consistent policy delivery across multiple government mandates.  

Its public-private partnership model — exemplified by IremboGov and eKash’s — demonstrates a government capable of co-designing commercial deployments with private partners rather than dictating terms unilaterally.  

Rwanda’s value to global investors is not its market size — it is its execution fidelity: a government that delivers, a regulatory environment that enables, and a digital infrastructure that compounds. 

Rwanda as continental staging ground 

For investors and implementers, Rwanda serves as a validation environment for the region. 

It is a proof-of-concept market of 14.5 million people with high institutional coherence and policy stability, large yet compact enough for investors to validate unit economics and establish regulatory relationships. 

Kigali-based companies and platforms built on Rwanda’s DPI foundations are not building for a single national market — they are building for a regional market that is converging toward common digital infrastructure standards. 

Successful DPI-native businesses validated in Rwanda can leverage this architecture to expand into the regional markets with larger populations and even comparable or lower DPI maturity. 

The eKash/Mojaloop architecture is designed for portability: Mojaloop-based deployments are already operational in multiple African markets, meaning Rwanda’s investment in sovereign infrastructure is simultaneously an investment in regional interoperability. 

A framework for practical engagement 

For investors, technology vendors, and policymakers seeking to engage with Rwanda’s DPI ecosystem, here are some ways that you can do so: 

Pilot-first capital: Structure investments around staged pilots with government API integration.  

Rwanda’s digital pathways — through RISA, the Ministry of ICT, and sector ministries — offer structured gates from pilot to national deployment.  

Design investment tranches around milestones tied to specific deliverable, not arbitrary timelines. 

Regulatory co-design: Engage the National Bank of Rwanda, RURA, RISA and the NCSA (Data Protection Office) as co-designers, not compliance counterparties.  

Their demonstrated willingness to engage with private-sector partners on regulatory design accelerates licensing and reduces implementation risk significantly. 

DPI-native architecture: Build natively on eKash/RNDPS payment rails, IremboGov service layers, and the SDID identity system and many other DPGs under RISA.  

Products designed around the national DPI inherit structural advantages in adoption and retention, while those that bypass the DPI face higher friction and lower commercial viability. 

Local talent as competitive positioning: Rwanda’s digital economy has produced a growing cohort of technically capable, regulatory-fluent practitioners.  

Hybrid teams combining global technical expertise with local institutional knowledge consistently outperform pure expatriate deployments on both speed and durability. 

Design for regional portability from Day 1: The incremental cost of designing a deployment model adaptable to EAC market conditions is low.  

The incremental return — a validated regional scale pathway that is earned rather than assumed — is high. 

The infrastructure imperative 

DPI is not a development concept.

It is an economic architecture — one that determines whether digital adoption translates into productivity, financial inclusion, and investable opportunity, or remains confined to consumer applications that generate noise without structural transformation.  

Africa’s opportunity is real, urgent, and large. 

But capturing that opportunity requires investing in the shared foundations that convert digital adoption into economic structure.  

Rwanda does not claim to be Africa’s only credible DPI market, but only among the most execution-ready as indicated by the fore highlighted examples. 

For global investors, technology implementers, digital systems vendors seeking credible partnerships in Africa’s digital economy: the foundations have been built.  

The models have been validated. The institutional partners are proven. Come, let’s build the next digital revolution together. 

Key sources: NISR GDP National Accounts 2024; Rwanda FinScope Survey 2024 (NISR); IremboGov data: Cenfri (2024), ICTD (2025); RNDPS/eKash: Mojaloop Foundation (2025), AfricaNenda (2025), RISA (2025), TechAfrica News (Feb 2025); AfricaNenda SIIPS Report 2025; African Development Bank SME Financing Gap (2024); World Bank Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project; Government of Rwanda NST2 2024–2029; NIDA Rwanda; S&P Global Ratings (2025); Oxford University Press, Digital Government Excellence (2022). 

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Ambassador Innocent B. Muhizi is the High Commissioner of Rwanda in Singapore. He previously served as the CEO of Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), and the CIO of different banks in the country. 

The original article was first published on Ambassador Innocent's LinkedIn page here , and then edited.