Kigali (TDI): Rwanda and Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Trade on Thursday, on the sidelines of the Rwanda-Pakistan Investment Forum 2026. The agreement is meant to give commercial ties between the two countries a firm institutional footing.
Rwanda’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Tony Kajangwe, and Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Rwanda, Naeem Khan, signed the document.
It is intended to support trade facilitation, stronger business-to-business partnerships and joint ventures. Priority sectors include manufacturing, textiles and apparel, agriculture, tourism and transport.
The signing came on the second day of the forum, which runs from 23 to 25 September. A Pakistani business delegation comprising 15 to 16 representatives is attending to meet Rwandan government institutions, business leaders and investors.
Before the forum, a joint press conference in Islamabad described a bilateral trade agreement as a key expected outcome, giving commercial relations an institutional framework.
The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1962, and Pakistan has had a resident High Commission in Kigali since March 2021. Rwanda opened its own mission in Islamabad only recently, in April 2025.
Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Harerimana Fatou, speaking at the aforementioned press talk, said Rwanda supplies around 45% of the tea consumed in Pakistan and is also a major buyer of Pakistani rice.
She also pointed to a target of increasing bilateral trade substantially further, though the percentage figures cited in press reports are not clearly defined and no absolute trade values were given.
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Rwanda has pitched itself as more than a small domestic market. Fatou described it as a gateway for Pakistani firms seeking access to the wider African market through production, joint ventures and regional expansion.
Pakistani business representatives, including Ambassador Hamid Asghar Khan of the Pakistan Africa Economic Council, have named pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food processing, IT and manufacturing as promising areas.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Board of Investment minister, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, met Fatou in Islamabad, and they discussed a possible MoU between the relevant institutions to provide a framework for structured cooperation.
Tourism and transport, both named in today’s agreement, are an addition to the sectors emphasized during earlier discussions, which centered on textiles, pharmaceuticals, rice and tea. Transport links in particular could shape how quickly any of these commitments turn into trade volume.
