The ultimate accomplishment of these awards is to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and competitiveness

The Private Sector Federation (PSF) is to reward top entrepreneurs in the country in a bid to recognise their contribution towards Rwanda’s economy.

Antoine Manzi Rutayisire, the PSF Director of Entrepreneurship and Business Growth said that the competition will recognise those entrepreneurs and businesses that demonstrate innovation and best practices. 

During an interview recently, Rutayisire said, "The ultimate accomplishment of these awards is to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and competitiveness.” He said that the awards are open to all sectors of the economy that are innovative and competitive.

A brochure from PSF reads that the awards encourage fair competition, modern management and firms to produce high quality products and services to access both regional and international markets.

"They seek to promote the role of the private sector as the engine for economic growth.”

According to the programme, awards shall be categorised into 12 distinct classes such as services sector, tourism sector and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the year.

Winners from each category will be crowned including overall winners. These shall be determined by a six-person jury, compromising personalities of high integrity from the Business Community and Academia.

These inaugural awards are dubbed, ‘Enterprise of the Year Awards (ENOYA) – 2008’. About 25 companies have confirmed their participation.

"Because of the fewer number of participants in the competition the event is now scheduled for February next year,” Rutayisire explained. The awards were initially slated for latter this month.

He added: "We will try to strategise our campaigns in order to have more participants.”

Similarly, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) through one of its seven amalgamated institutions, Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (Riepa) recently crowned best investors and exporters.

Bralirwa, the country’s sole soft drink and brewery company was rewarded best investor, and Gahaya Links, a local crafts company popularly known for the Rwanda peace baskets, was awarded as the best exporter.

The awards were to recognise the role of the private sector towards economic development as spelt out in Vision 2020.

To the winners and members of the private sector, the awards were an opportunity to benchmark their companies’ performance against peers.

Awards were also said to be a way of building public confidence in the honoured companies.

Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA) also awarded companies that outclassed others in uplifting the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

Companies in the private sector were rewarded with these first Intego Information Communication Technology (ICT) awards.

According to RITA, the awards were to promote ICT entrepreneurship, motivate Rwandan companies to produce exportable ICT products and to serve rural and other underserved areas.

RITA is also the other one of the institutes that make up RDB, an institute charged with the stirring up of economic development in Rwanda.

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