Southern Province
Southern Province: Huye's National University, coffee and tea highlands, former royal seat, traditional agriculture amid Kigali's dominance.
Southern Province contains Huye (formerly Butare), Rwanda's intellectual center and home to the National University of Rwanda. The province served as the precolonial seat of the Rwandan monarchy and retains cultural significance despite losing political centrality to Kigali. Coffee and tea cultivation on the hillsides generate export earnings that flow through the agricultural 25% of Rwanda's GDP.
The province's role in Rwanda's 8.9% growth trajectory is traditional rather than transformative: cash crop agriculture, academic institutions, and proximity to Burundi for cross-border trade. Southern Province exemplifies Rwanda's challenge of developing provincial economies when Kigali captures 41% of national output.