A total of ten women-led enterprises on November 3rd aced for interest-free loans in a heightened business pitch under BK Urumuri Initiative. In two weeks, up to six entrepreneurs will be announced winners of the scoop under Bank of Kigali and Inkomoko Entrepreneur Development partnership.
The pitch competition took place on Tuesday at Lemigo Hotel in front of a panel of five judges from the Bank and the business ecosystem.
Through the initiative, BK and Inkomoko seek to support innovative entrepreneurs by equipping them with business skills under Inkomoko accelerator as well as access to finance.
Sought-after businesses must be established, present a strong social impact potential with replicability, scalability and sustainability as well as depict value proposition and innovation.
This year, the 4th edition of BK Urumuri was launched to support women-led businesses in Rwanda. As a response to Covid-19, 25 enterprises selected from a pool of over 150 applicants were trained digitally through online webinars and phone consulting. According to the planners, the most sought services by the small and medium businesses are bookkeeping, sales strategy and digital marketing.
BK and Inkomoko say that the services will help businesses track all their transactions to understand the finances of their companies, structure their sales effort, segment their customers, and develop a sales pitch and process as well as training salespeople on how to increase sales.
"This is the fourth year we are transforming lives of entrepreneurs and it is very special because we have women in focus,” said Thierry Nshuti, Head of Marketing at Bank of Kigali. "We are helping them take their business to another level.”
Every year, BK Urumuri Initiative supports between five and eight entrepreneurs with up to Frw 25 Million in interest-free loans coupled with business coaching, said Nshuti.
"There is a good reason why we don’t offer the entrepreneurs free money,” he noted, "In their daily business activities, they will not often get free money. As business people, they need to learn how to work with financial institutions.”
Founded in 2012, Inkomoko has supported over 14,000 business projects and garnered more than 100 employees working in eight different offices across Rwanda, according to founder and CEO, Julienne Oyler.
The firm’s Managing Director, Nathalie Niyonzima commended the entrepreneurs’ resilience, particularly during the adverse financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"We know very well that the economy of Rwanda is supported by small and medium enterprises. But we also know very well that these businesses were badly affected by Covid-19. Nonetheless, we are delighted by their resilience and this initiative seeks to encourage them to push through,” she said.
Niyonzima said that during the pandemic, women-led enterprises with limited resources were able to retain more staff than their male-led counterparts.
Winners of the pitch competition will be announced in two weeks. All participating businesses were started between 2012 and 2019. They include:
Slice & Cakes Ltd - a premium bakery and cake store that handcraft cakes, cupcakes, and desserts for the growing middle-class Rwandan families with an eye of the diaspora.
Nova Leather Ltd - leather manufacturer and producer of jackets, belts, shoes, and bags also supplying other textiles companies across the country.
La Fotolia Ltd - a media and graphic design company that provides photography and videography leveraging cloud-based (storage) services.
Uzi Collections Ltd - a fashion house that produces and sells men and women clothes targeting medium and high-income earners between the age of 20 and 65 years.
Endless Trading Ltd - a textile company that brings together teen and single mothers to make carpets out of kitenge.
Weya Creations Ltd - a fashion design business that produces clothes from denim for men, women, and children but eyeing mass production of undergarments.
Exalto Engineering and Supply Solutions Ltd - an agri-processing enterprise making whiskey, wine, and juice out of sugarcane with growing exports to Ivory Coast, Congo, and Tanzania.
Jotete Investment Ltd - a fusion of horticulture and hospitality sectors. The company grows and exports flowers and uses the produce in interior design and decoration services.
Savior Civil Engineering Ltd - a construction company that provides design and consultancy services. The company wants to pioneer structure analysis faculty in the country.
Work Roselyne Ltd - an agri-business leading the growing and production of rosella hibiscus. Besides flowers, the company makes juice and tea powder from the medicinal plant.