Norrsken in partnership with the Embassy of Sweden in Rwanda on Monday launched the Women in Business Initiative to support and accelerate the growth of women-led tech-enabled ventures.
It is a joint initiative between the Embassy of Sweden in Rwanda and Norrsken Foundation.
According to Michelle Umurungi, Deputy Managing Director of Norrsken Foundation, the primary goal of the initiative is to create women role models in their ecosystem, who can build successful ventures and inspire more women to own and run successful businesses.
"We strongly believe entrepreneurship is the best way to support women's economic empowerment," she said.
"We are piloting a cohort of 20 women entrepreneurs; they will have access to technical support, free annual membership at Norrsken and a great community and network of mentors, coaches and other successful entrepreneurs."
Umurungi also noted that the initiative will run for 10 months, with the hope to onboard other cohorts as they draw learnings from the first cohort.
Speaking during the launch event, Johanna Teague, Ambassador of Sweden to Rwanda said the initiative seeks to deepen their joint understanding of the situation of women entrepreneurs with Norrsken.
"We see that Norrsken holds the potential to be a game changer in the ecosystem for Rwandan entrepreneurship and we want to work together to ensure that women entrepreneurs benefit from this journey," she said.
She noted that selected women will receive an annual membership at Norrsken and in addition, a series of inspiration events and training will be undertaken at the house for the coming year.
"Our aim is to identify and support women entrepreneurs in becoming role models and inspire aspiring young talents," she said. "There is so much talents and potential waiting to be realised and this is so important because realising these talents is not only about empowering women economically; it's about transforming society in achieving sustainable development."
Tadhim Uwizeye, the founder of Olado Business Group, an e-commerce startup, is among the women entrepreneurs selected to be part of the initiative.
She said through it, she hopes to connect and share experience, something she said is the most important part for a founder.
"They will also mentor and coach us," she continued. "They'll offer different courses and sessions related to entrepreneurship. This is an added value because as an entrepreneur, learning is always a first need."
Uwizeye also noted that getting a co-working space like Norrsken for free will help her to grow her business and easily make connections.
Amina Niyigena, Co-founder of Bookly Africa, a workspace that connect travelers to local tour operators, said being part of Women in Business Initiative is a great opportunity for a young woman like her because she'll be learning together with fellows the values of entrepreneurs, especially women, as well as how they can solve different challenges they face.
"I believe that for every business to succeed, it has not only to rely on the team but also the stakeholders. This is the right place to connect and build a strong relationship to make my business successful," she said.