A mother leaves a Shisha Kibondo distribution center all smiles. The program provides free- of-cost fortified pre-cooked and milled cereals (branded as Shisha Kibondo) to pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers from the poorest segment of the country’s population

In a country long focused on eradicating poverty and uplifting its most vulnerable, Rwanda’s latest poverty report presents a hopeful yet nuanced picture: the poorest Rwandans—those at the very bottom of the economic ladder—are living better today than they did seven years ago.

According to the 2023/24 Poverty Profile Report published this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), not only has the national poverty rate dropped from 39.8% in 2017 to 27.4% in 2024, but the depth of poverty itself has also significantly declined. More than 1.5 million people graduated from poverty in the past seven years.

These findings are based on the Seventh Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV7), a comprehensive national survey conducted between October 2023 and October 2024.

This conclusion stems from an analysis of the poverty gap index—a metric that measures how far below the poverty line the poor fall.

In 2017, poor Rwandans consumed, on average, 11.1% less than what is considered the minimum needed for basic needs.

By 2024, this shortfall had dropped to just 6.9%, signaling a marked reduction in the severity of deprivation. In simple language, even those who remain below the poverty line are now, on average, far less needy than before.

The data shows that these gains have extended to those in extreme poverty—people whose annual consumption falls below RWF 356,432 per adult equivalent, the cost of meeting only essential food needs.

The report outlines indicators from the lowest income quintile which reveal meaningful improvements in their living conditions.

Real Consumption, the total value of what a person or household actually uses or consumes, but adjusted without high price levels, has improved significantly. Incomes from the jobs that the poor are doing, increased 19.6%.

Basically, what the above means is that Rwanda’s poorest citizens are not only fewer than in 2017, but are also materially better today than they were previously.

Access to electricity, for instance, has more than quintupled for the poorest 20% of Rwandans—from just 9% in 2017 to 53.2% in 2024. This leap has significant implications, not only for lighting and phone charging but also for access to information, communication, and future economic opportunities.

Similarly, use of improved sanitation among the same group rose from 76.3% to 88.6%, while the proportion who received care when ill jumped from 41.8% to 57.4%.

Health insurance coverage among the poorest also saw a sharp rise—from 60.7% in 2017 to 76.0% in 2024—helping explain why more individuals now seek medical care when they fall ill.

Meanwhile, education outcomes have also trended upward. Net attendance at secondary school nearly doubled among the poorest, rising from 9.1% to 19.9%.

Literacy among young adults in the bottom quintile nudged upward from 77.2% to 79.5%, signaling that the education system is slowly extending its reach.

Indicators of material well-being, while still showing large disparities between income groups, also moved in a positive direction.

Cellphone ownership in Rwanda’s poorest rose from 44.1% to 74.1%, making digital inclusion a more tangible reality for the rural poor.

Even if computer ownership remains negligible (still below 0.1% in that group), the uptake of basic digital tools like phones and solar lighting is promising.

These improvements have not occurred by accident.

They reflect a decade of pro-poor policies, including expanded coverage of the Vision Umurenge Program (VUP), continued investment in rural electrification, infrastructure upgrades, and better targeting of health and education services.

The expansion of community-based health insurance (mutuelle de santé), the scale-up of school feeding programs, and improved access to all-weather roads (now 93.4% among the poorest) have each contributed to raising the floor for those in extreme poverty.

Yet, the gains are not without caveats.

Food prices remain high, and many among the extreme poor are net buyers of food, leaving them vulnerable to inflation. Access to piped water at home, an indicator of both health and dignity, remains abysmally low among the poorest at just 1.6%.

And while over half of the poorest now have electricity, most still cook with firewood or straw—posing continued environmental and health risks.

The data also underscores the Government’s unfinished agenda of poverty reduction. Even with significant gains, more than one in four Rwandans remain poor, and the gap between the richest and poorest remains wide. But what is encouraging is the direction of travel: the poorest are not being left behind.

Their material conditions, access to services, and opportunities for social mobility have improved—even if they still face significant structural disadvantages.

Fred Mwasa