The Safest Country to Travel to in Africa

According to a recent survey, Rwanda is the sixth-safest nation in the world and first in Africa for solo travelers.

Usebounce.com, a luggage storage app for finding and booking left luggage & lockers, stated that it based the ranking on two factors: the score of the crime index, and the score of the security index. This indicates that when one gets ready to travel alone, one of the most important factors to consider is the safety of the country they are going to.

According to the index ranking, European nations dominated the list, with the only Asian and African nations to make the top 10 being Rwanda and Japan.

By creating capable and experienced security organs, Rwanda has made significant efforts to ensure the security and safety of the nation’s borders. According to the 2018 Gallup Global Law and Order report, the East African nation was ranked as the second safest in Africa, with 83% of citizens having faith in their local police force. According to Gallup’s Law and Order Index from the previous year, Rwanda was also one of the safest nations in the world for people to walk alone at night.   The safest country in Africa for solo travellers is Rwanda.

It has the second-best Police, third-best Roads, and best Rule of Law in all of Africa.

The best legal system on the continent and the 23rd best in the world is found in this East African country. It outperformed the USA, France, and Germany with a score of 5.6 out of 7.

A new constitution that was adopted in 2004 as well as recent judicial reforms are credited with this high rating. Case resolution reportedly took up to 20 years before the reform.

The ranking speaks to the judiciary’s guiding principle to be and to be seen as independent and impartial, as well as the effort put forth over the years, said Johnston Busingye, the Rwandan Minister of Justice and Attorney General, in a statement to The New Times.

“The ranking doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, but as you can see, even the top-ranked nation globally doesn’t have everything,” he continued. For us, it signifies the maturation of our judicial system, which is the basis for our long-standing confidence and trust. The WEF rating, according to the Attorney General, indicates that Rwanda’s judiciary’s “wide approach” is having a positive impact on the sector. “Recognition of judicial independence is the key badge every justice sector wants to wear,” says the author. “It is the result of multiple sector stakeholder efforts.”

Africa’s cleanest city is Kigali, the nation’s capital.

The capital and largest city of Rwanda, an East African nation, is Kigali. It is located in the middle of the nation and is home to about 1.2 million people. In addition to its history and cultural attractions, Kigali is renowned for its cleanliness and orderly traffic. The city, which has recently undergone significant economic and infrastructure development, is regarded as a regional centre for trade and tourism.

It is the second-best country in Africa for doing business.

The economy of Rwanda has expanded by 6% annually on average since 2000. On the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings, the Sub-Saharan African nation comes in at number 38 with a score of 76.5. Only New Zealand is easier to register a property in than Rwanda, which is ranked second worldwide. 

The nation of East Africa has enacted the most business reforms in Africa in recent years. The nation has implemented electronic systems to help replace its oppressive bureaucracies. Taxpayers can now use free software to generate value-added tax invoices.

Policy of one laptop per child.

The steps Rwanda has taken to integrate technology into the educational process are consistent with its goal of developing a knowledge-based economy. The One Laptop Per Child project, an initiative to provide Rwandan schoolchildren with “rugged low-cost, low-power laptops” that would significantly improve the country’s educational sector, was introduced by the government in 2008, signaling the country’s desire to revolutionize the education sector with technology. With the completion of this project, Rwanda gained parity with Uruguay and Peru, two other nations that had adopted the same plan. 

Free medical care.

With its Mutuelles de Sante (Mutual Health) community-based health insurance program, Rwanda has made significant progress toward achieving universal health coverage. 

Overall, Rwanda’s insurance program has experienced phenomenal growth; coverage increased from less than 7% of the CBHI target population in 2003 to 74% in 2013.  Funds are used in this program to subsidize clinic operations and citizen care.  As a result, citizens can obtain medical care and pay for services using a socioeconomically-based tiered premium system.

The governance structures established in Rwanda further facilitate this kind of coverage. The district is in charge of regional planning and coordination of public service delivery, while the central government agencies are in charge of policy formulation and regulation. As a result, district-level decentralization of funding for health care delivery and health systems ensures that programming is focused and meets the needs of each unique community.

The second-best country in Africa for gender equality.

Rwanda stands out internationally for its efforts to advance GEWE, particularly in terms of political participation. Women hold nearly two thirds of the parliamentary seats and 52% of the cabinet positions in this country. Numerous sectors have also seen significant advancements.  According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, Rwanda was among the top 10 nations for closing the gender gap. One of Rwanda’s accomplishments is the decline in maternal mortality rates brought on by women having better access to high-quality, reasonably priced healthcare. With more than 200,000 signatories and three commitments to close the gender digital divide by 2020, triple the number of girls enrolled in TVET, and end gender-based violence, Rwanda is leading the HeForShe Campaign globally. 

A bold move in a time when the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digitalization of all services, the nation recently took the initiative in the Generation Equality Action Coalition Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality and committed to eradicating the digital gender gap by 2026.

Eye care for everyone.     

The first low-income nation to offer all of its citizens’ access to eye care in Rwanda. This is an effort to assist those who experience largely avoidable visual disabilities. 34 percent of the people in Rwanda, a nation in Central and Eastern Africa, have vision problems. Shortsightedness is the most prevalent visual impairment in Rwanda, and 80% of these cases can be avoided.