Formula 1 journalist, Joe Saward, has reported that F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali, has been in conversation with Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, about the possibility of a race in the country.
Rwanda has been recovering in the last few decades following their civil war, which started in 1990, and ended nearly four years later.
The Tutsi monarchy was forced out of power by a Hutu republic, and with the former having retreated to Uganda, Kagame helped organise an army to take back control of the country.
Kagame played an instrumental role in the invasion, and he was named vice president in 1994 after his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Group took back control.
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He then took over as president from Mobutu Sese Seko in 2000, and he has been in charge of the country ever since.
In 2008, the Rwandan Franc hit an all-time high against the pound sterling, at 0.13 percent, and while it has dropped significantly since then, it is now back on the rise at 0.083 percent.
Global interest in F1 has been growing since the Netflix docuseries, Drive to Survive, with a multitude of countries now seeing the financial benefits of opening its doors to the pinnacle of motorsport.
Rwanda has now emerged as one of those countries, with Saward indicating that Domenicali held a “quiet” meeting with Kagame about the possibility of the country hosting a race in the future.
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Saward reckons Rwanda is aiming to become an “upper-middle income” nation in the next 13 years, and that they are using Singapore as a model for economic success.
Following the breakdown of South Africa’s bid to bring F1 back to Kyalami, this could be a good opportunity for Rwanda to swoop in and take their place on the F1 calendar in the coming years.
South Africa and Morocco are currently the only two African countries to have hosted an F1 race.