UMUZUNGUZAI WA NYABUGOGO
Senior Member
- Mar 18, 2026
- 145
- 1
The sanctions from the U.S. Department of the Treasury against the Rwandan bank Zigama Credit and Savings Society will have significant consequences, though ones that Rwanda seems to have anticipated:
1. Immediate freeze of all the bank's assets in the United States.
2. Total ban on using the dollar and the U.S. banking system. So it's impossible to make purchases, import or export while paying in U.S. dollars...
3. International financial isolation (cutoff from the SWIFT network and correspondent banks)
4. Risk of secondary sanctions for any company that does business with it.
5. Crisis of confidence in the bank in question...
And yet, it's the bank used by the vast majority of soldiers, police officers, prison staff, or even Rwandan intelligence agents. It offers them the best credit rates!
But fortunately, over 90% of bank transactions in Rwanda are conducted in Rwandan francs and, more recently, Rwanda has turned to China and other countries to use their currencies.
This will go a long way toward reducing the direct impact of these sanctions and mitigating them in the long term.
The USA, as a mediator, is multiplying sanctions against one of the parties in the conflict. This would reduce any real involvement in the peace process.
1. Immediate freeze of all the bank's assets in the United States.
2. Total ban on using the dollar and the U.S. banking system. So it's impossible to make purchases, import or export while paying in U.S. dollars...
3. International financial isolation (cutoff from the SWIFT network and correspondent banks)
4. Risk of secondary sanctions for any company that does business with it.
5. Crisis of confidence in the bank in question...
And yet, it's the bank used by the vast majority of soldiers, police officers, prison staff, or even Rwandan intelligence agents. It offers them the best credit rates!
But fortunately, over 90% of bank transactions in Rwanda are conducted in Rwandan francs and, more recently, Rwanda has turned to China and other countries to use their currencies.
This will go a long way toward reducing the direct impact of these sanctions and mitigating them in the long term.
The USA, as a mediator, is multiplying sanctions against one of the parties in the conflict. This would reduce any real involvement in the peace process.
