Despite affiliation to RPF, Crystal Ventures still competes fairly -Kayonga

Security firm Intersec is one of the businesses owned by Crystal Ventures Ltd. Inset: Jack Kayonga, chairman Crystal Ventures Ltd. Photo/Cyril Ndegeya  Nation Media Group

By Berna Namata Rwanda Today

In Summary

• Over the past 20 years, Crystal Ventures Ltd, formerly Tri-Star Investments, has taken the lead in promoting investment in the Rwandan economy. It has done this by investing in virgin sectors of the economy, which has seen it become the biggest local investment company. Recently, Crystal Ventures overhauled its operations to improve efficiency in its businesses.
• In addition to recent changes in top management, including the appointment of a new board chairman and chief executive officer, the company, which is valued at approximately $500 million and is owned by the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), is effecting changes in its subsidiaries.
• Last year, Jack Kayonga was appointed to replace Prof Nshuti Manasseh as board chairman, signalling the changing face of a business that has been fighting allegations that it disproportionately benefits from lucrative government contracts.

In an exclusive interview with Rwanda Today’s Berna Namata, Crystal Ventures Ltd chairman Jack Kayonga gives an insight into the company’s new business strategy.

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There is conflicting information about the ownership of CVL, its source of funding and its investment philosophy. Please clarify this information?

Crystal Ventures is a locally registered company, wholly owned by Rwandans. Sources of funding are our shareholder’s equity, revenues from our operations and financing from local and global financial institutions.

Our investment philosophy is to invest in unexplored high risk areas that yield high returns but that present opportunity for significant social-economic spillovers. We directly employ more than 10,000 employees.

Our investment horizon ranges between 5-15 years or until when a specific sector has matured and there is a favourable exit option.

Since its inception, how have the operational objectives of CVL changed in the past 20 years?

They have changed in tandem with the overall ones of the Rwandan economy and the specific sectors where we operate. Most of the companies were started as monopolies with the objective of kick-starting the country’s private sector after the 1994 Genocide.

Twenty years later, we now operate in a more competitive local and regional business environment. We thrive on innovation, technology and attracting and retaining the best talent to stay ahead of our competitors.

What has informed the recent restructuring of CVL’s management, branding, and so on?

The recent changes both in management and branding are in line with the overall strategic objective of improving efficiency and repositioning our brands to be competitive locally and internationally.

READ: Crystal Ventures staff to lose jobs

CVL is alleged to get special favours from the government because it is affiliated to the ruling RPF. How do you view these allegations?

We find the allegations biased and uninformed, CVL runs under proper corporate governance structures and is run as a purely private company without any interference or favour from the government.

We compete fairly with other private and public companies for tenders. We are not the industry leaders in all the sectors we operate in and we have at times lost government tenders to our competitors.