Raffles Family Office hires former Rwandan minister for Africa-Asia role

Raffles Family Office appointed Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye as Principal, Emerging Markets and Business Development, a newly created position the Hong Kong multi-family office announced on 8 September. He is based in Hong Kong and reports directly to Group CEO Chi Man Kwan.

The appointment follows Raffles Family Office's naming of Ken Peng as its first chief investment officer, also Hong Kong-based and also reporting to Kwan, as this publication reported.

Uwihanganye's mandate is the Africa–Asia investment corridor, which the firm said reflects its long-term conviction in Africa. The release calls the continent home to the world's youngest and fastest-growing population, projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, and cites the African Continental Free Trade Area as a single market of some 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of around US$3.4 trillion. RFO said those shifts are expected to accelerate wealth creation and drive demand for investment, wealth structuring and succession solutions.

Raffles Family Office said Uwihanganye brings more than fifteen years of experience across government, capital and cross-border business. He was Rwanda's Minister of State for Infrastructure most recently, and before that Rwanda's High Commissioner to Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Brunei and Ambassador to Indonesia. He also served as Dean of the African Group of Ambassadors in Singapore, representing 54 African nations to the Asia-Pacific business community. The release says the Inclusive FinTech Forum, which it calls Africa's largest global finance and technology event, was conceived and launched during his tenure. Earlier in his career he was a director at a construction company in Rwanda. He is a Chartered Engineer with First Class degrees from Rwanda and the University of Manchester and an MBA from Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University.

"Africa's potential is greater than many yet recognise, and helping perception catch up with that potential takes people who understand both ends of the corridor," Group CEO Chi Man Kwan said in the release. Uwihanganye said Africa and Asia "are increasingly writing the next chapter of global growth together," and that patient family capital can be "one of the most effective bridges between them."