When you Google the poorest country in Africa, Burundi pops up top in the results. Same to searching for the poorest country in the world.
The next question probably would be why the political leadership is allowing such a beautiful country to lead Africa from the bottom because it’s held that position for a while.
However, searching about the president points you instead to people who are trying to build the country for a better future narrative.
Then you see him. He not only seems so young but he also looks so driven.
How is he building Burundi you ask yourself? So, you dig deeper and you find his story, and true to it, in some years to come, people will be going to see Burundi.
Fablice Manirakiza is his name. He doesn’t see Burundi as the poorest country in Africa. Born and raised in Burundi, he fled to neighboring Rwanda when war broke out, then came the Rwandan genocide and he fled back to Burundi.
This disruption led to the separation of his family and he found himself on the streets before seeking refuge in Tanzania. However, twenty years later he knows that Burundi has more potential than it is being credited for.
He decided to do something about it and named his initiative; Come and See Burundi.
From staying in one of the refugee camps in Tanzania and getting to be one of the lucky people who got to be rescued to Australia, Fablice was just trying to come to terms with everything that happened around his childhood to getting education and pursuing a music career in Australia.
How did he come from being one of the known musicians to being the head of the diaspora financial link in Burundi? How did he come from being a street kid to building one of the first gated communities in Burundi?
While every musician dreams of winning a Grammy, Fablice only fancied of putting Burundi on the global map. On one of his performances, he asked for the flag of Burundi to be raised for his entrance. He always knew he needed to come home and develop Burundi.
As an ambassador of Come and see Burundi, he is trying to ensure that people see Burundi not as the poorest country but as one of the countries with great potential.
One of the ways he’s done this is by creating a safe gated residential estate through which Burundians in the diaspora could actually develop their own by investing and creating jobs.
The dream to build Burundi came to him in 2018. Sometimes when you live in the diaspora, you face many instances where money is sent home for development projects but the money disappears with no development to show for it.
Funny thing, you only realized this after sending the million dollars when you visit and find out that the pictures and videos you’ve been shown all along belong to a neighbor’s construction site.
Fablice was one of those people in the diaspora that sent money for the development of things at home but when he came back, there was nothing solid.
He wondered how he could solve this problem. He was also wondering how much money is being lost and how much is disappearing from the diaspora people who want to build and develop their country.
How was he going to help himself and help each other to ensure that this problem does not occur? How was he also going to convince the diaspora people to trust him?
More importantly, how was he going to convince the banks to trust him with this project?
Most people in the diaspora often fear coming back home before putting up a residential place to come back to. How was he going to convince them to come back without a show of how this could be possible?
He therefore wanted to bridge the gap between the diaspora people and the country people financially. He wanted to find a way to make this money well-accounted for.
His first attempt was to approach one of the banks in Burundi and ask for a partnership and loans. The first bank he approached actually thought that maybe this is another diaspora person who come home with grand ideas that end up failing like many ideas before them.
However, he wasn’t discouraged and he knew there was a way out. He knew this was what Burundi needed to attract back its people from the diaspora.
He built the first set of houses that caught the attention of the investors and many Burundians from the diaspora. He built one of the gated communities by trying to be the moderator between the banks and the people.
To him, if sending money to the people is not going to build the houses, how about collaborating with local banks so that the diaspora people can build the houses while he oversees their implementation?
Many people want to build their properties but they don’t know the right channel to trust. Fablice created a trustable channel that came up with ways through which people in the diaspora could invest in properties back home.
To make this dream come true and this business worthy, he approached another bank and gave them his idea. His proposal was that he encourage people from the diaspora to channel their money to the bank as he used the money to build the properties.
People who were not able to afford the whole construction were also given credits from the same bank so that the construction process could proceed. This made the construction easier for both parties.
Through this financial trust and ideas, he got to build one of the most prestigious gated communities in Bujumbura.
Phase one of the Lakeview Paradise Estate already sold out and occupied. The second phase is under construction and has been sold out even before the construction reached the foundation level.
Creating some of the most admirable properties in Burundi has attracted more people to come back and start investing there. He has proven that even the poorest country, can have a piece of Melbourne, Australia where his life story changed.
The houses on the property are all modern with well-paved access roads and world-class amenities. Fablice is re-creating Burundi to ensure that people “Come and See Burundi”.
“We’re now well experienced to expand the constructions and the estates. The houses are each built in one area, and have three rooms and one balcony and all the houses are in a gated community. There will be swimming pools, gym tonic, Mini bar, Mini market and Mini pharmacy without forgetting security men and security cameras.” said Fablice Manirakiza when explaining how the buildings will look like.
Burundi is having one of the best-developed projects and he’s encouraging the Burundians in the diaspora to come back home. Come and invest. Come and ignite. Come and discover. Come and Build Burundi.
Maybe all Burundi needed was somebody to start seeing its potential. Creating real estate and developing infrastructure and social amenities is attracting investors and improving the lives of many Burundians who are benefitting from employment opportunities in these projects.
If Burundi can encourage more people like Fablice to come back home and take on different programs that touch livelihoods, they will not lead from the bottom for long.
