All aspects of running a business, from taxes, access to loans to markets, and skills need to be checked to reduce the number of small businesses that collapse after they are launched if the youth are to be employed, a cabinet minister has observed.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the Minister for Youth and ICT, was speaking yesterday at a meeting organised by the Senate to understand how the youth are integrated in national development programmes.

The minister said it was "indignant” that 80 per cent of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) started dissolve in their first year, leaving many youths unemployed or forced into underemployment.

"We need to look at everything to ensure that we reduce the rate at which small businesses fold. We need first to understand that it is a problem and then talk about addressing it,” Nsengimana told the meeting.

About 100 people gathered at the meeting, mostly government officials, entrepreneurs in the private sector, representatives of the youth from the country’s 30 districts, and legislators.

The meeting also attracted bankers, members of the civil society and United Nations officials who are involved with promoting and funding youth projects.

Programmes for the youth

Rwanda, whose 40 per cent of the population (4.16 million individuals) are young people (aged 14-35), has launched several programmes intended to integrate the youth in national development.

The programmes include an education system focused on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), building of integrated crafts production centres, locally known as Udukiriro, facilitating the youth to access finances through services of the Business Development Fund (BDF), and rapid skills training through the multi-million National Employment Programme (NEP).

The Minister for Trade and Industry, François Kanimba, said the more the youth get adequate vocational skills and knowledge of running businesses the less local SMEs will collapse in the country.

"People who don’t have what to do often think that they can start businesses. But they need to keep learning about business operations if they are to succeed. Not every Rwandan can be a business person,” he said.

On track

For the UN resident coordinator Lamin Manneh, Rwanda is "in the right line” in addressing employment challenges for the youth.

This year, the One UN family in Rwanda announced a five-year programme worth $30 million (about Rwf20 billion), that would boost government’s efforts of creating jobs for the youth and women.

"Rwanda has a robust national youth policy,” Manneh told delegates at the meeting yesterday.

Rwanda’s 2012 Population and Housing Census revealed that unemployment rate in the country is at 3.4 per cent but the issue is tougher in urban areas – at 7.7 per cent – and among the youth as about 67 per cent of all unemployed people are youth aged 16-34 years.

Although the unemployment rate for the youth might look low, at 4.1 per cent, experts have warned that a big number of the Rwandan youth is underemployed with the Ministry of Youth estimating that 65 per cent of the youth is underemployed, working less than 35 hours a week.

Minister Nsengimana highlighted Rwanda’s growing economy, advances in technology, infrastructure development, rapid urbanisation, and regional integration among the opportunities for the Rwandan youth to create jobs and live happier.

eugene.kwibuka@newtimes.co.rw