Four young Rwandan innovators and entrepreneurs have developed an application dubbed "Apewo App” available on Play store and App store as an online exhibition platform where people can order for and buy different types of locally made products.

Regis Dushimiyimana who came up with the idea in the team told Doing Business that he developed the application after realizing that the effects of Covid-19 pandemic requiring to go virtual and after realizing that some young entrepreneurs can’t afford to rent spaces where their products can be exhibited and sold on daily basis.

"I myself have my own products as a fashion designer and I realized that with Apewo App I can continue exhibiting and selling my products through people who can order using the platform. Young entrepreneurs, SMES and big companies with locally made products can put their products in the stock on the application and when people order and buy them, we get little commission fee from sellers,” he said.

The graduate of computer science in high school-who in 2017 officially started fashion design as a business with savings obtained from internship- said that the online platform of exhibiting the products is affordable especially for young entrepreneurs and startups who do not have financial capacity to rent commercial buildings and those who have capacity but want to expand businesses and exploit wider market.

"With my first 20 bags I produced I had no chance to attend an exhibition of Made-in-Rwanda products in 2018 because I was also producing them at my own home due to lack of capacity to rent a workshop. That means that other than home I had no elsewhere to retail my products,”

"I realized that other young entrepreneurs were facing the same problem. Then I thought an online exhibition platform could be better as a virtual way to expose the products for many entrepreneurs,” he said.

The first lockdown, he said, also taught him a lesson and in April 2020, he developed the platform and in May he registered the company dubbed "Apewo Corporation” in Rwanda Development Board.

He said that the startup has a vision to take the platform to international level and tap into available opportunities.

"So far we are working with over 22 companies including big ones and SMEs with different products. The app is now being navigated by thousands of users. All the locally made products can be exhibited on the platform,” he said.

Apewo is available on Google Play Store and App Store.

The platform, he said, also puts Made in Rwanda products on the spotlight through intellectual property services.

"We hope that the platform will increase employment because as the demand for the products grows through the virtual exhibition, the entrepreneur could increase more people in the business,” Dushimiyimana said.

He urged young entrepreneurs to adopt e-commerce as a way of boosting their sales.

According to an assessment by the Ministry of ICT, currently, there are 186,396 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) registered in Rwanda, but less than one per cent of them are running their business through e-commerce platforms due to some challenges crossing the e-commerce value chain.

It is estimated that across sub-Saharan Africa, the potential size of the e-Commerce market will grow to $180 billion by 2025 and over $700 billion by 2050 – with a considerable increase from the 2020 figure of $115 billion in 2020.

 In Rwanda, the estimated e-commerce growth is from $0.52 billion in 2020 to $0.97 billion in 2025.

Tapping into Africa Continental Free Trade Area

The young innovator said that the online selling platform could also help entrepreneurs to tap into Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)-the strategic framework to boost intra-African trade by providing a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement among the member states.

"It is a very good spot for us to be taking Made-in-Rwanda into the whole continent. It is an opportunity for us to expand and take Made-in-Rwanda products outside Rwanda in a virtual way. If we get into the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, we will search for more partners to deliver and ship more products,” Dushimiyimana said.

Since the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) went into force in January last year, the East African Community (EAC) of which Rwanda is a member stands at 87 per cent of products to be traded under the agreement.

According to the AfCFTA modalities, 90 per cent tariff offers fall under category A, where products had to be liberalized in 2021 and progressively reduced over 10 years. Seven per cent get liberalized over 15 years and three per cent of products are excluded from tax exemption