At the recently concluded Youth Connekt Awards 2022, local enterprise Greencare Rwanda Ltd emerged as the winner, beating three other finalists to take home the grand prize of Rwf25m. The four innovative project ideas that reached the finals included Urukundo Initiative, Dotpharma, Smartclass, and 1000 Hills Traveler Ltd’s Bookly Africa.
During the event held on May 10 at the Kigali Convention Centre, over 500 young innovators gathered to celebrate youth-led small and medium enterprises in Rwanda and discuss ways forward to empower the youth and boost their economic development.
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Getting the youth to grab opportunities
Alain Christian Ruzindana of Greencare Rwanda Ltd encouraged other young entrepreneurs to take advantage of such programmes and unleash their potential to make a significant contribution to Rwanda&039;s socioeconomic transformation.
"We owe our success to the innovative and comprehensive support we received. We acquired the skills, knowledge, and confidence necessary to pursue our entrepreneurial ambitions and create a positive impact on our society,” he said, stressing that young people need to step up now more than ever.
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Tapping into the potential of youth-led businesses
On the same occasion, the Ministry of Youth, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the European Union launched Aguka, a new, innovative programme aimed at unleashing the potential of youth-led businesses in Rwanda.
The initiative will run from 2022 to 2026, offering comprehensive support to young entrepreneurs from ideation to business expansion, ultimately contributing to the creation of jobs and opportunities for young Rwandans.
The programme aims to directly impact over 6,600 youth-led businesses, with skills, seed funding, and exposure to contribute to boosting youth employability and potentially creating over 100,000 jobs for their peers.
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It will offer services to youth-led micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, including finance access, advanced business development training, mentorship, networking, investment, and market linkages.
The Minister of Youth, Dr Jean-Nepo Abdallah Utumatwishima, emphasised that the programme aims at boosting competence and supporting excellence among young people and those whose efforts are contributing to the desired transformation of Rwanda.
Belén Calvo Uyarra, the Ambassador of the European Union to Rwanda, added that the partnership with the Rwandan entrepreneurs’ ecosystem will focus on addressing post-incubation gaps, such as the lack of technical, management, and financial support for innovative start-ups.
To ensure effective implementation, the programme has signed partnership agreements with key players like the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Norrsken, and the African Management Institute (AMI).
Maxwell Gomera, UNDP’s Resident Representative in Rwanda, said the partnerships formed with the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the private sector should lead new generations of entrepreneurs to create more jobs and livelihood opportunities, hence fostering business development and expansion.
Over the next four years, TEF will empower 1,600 young Rwandans, with 50% of young women being the target.
The empowerment package includes entrepreneurship training, seed funding, and one-on-one mentorship by experts nationwide.
Under the partnership with Norrsken and AMI, 100 advanced youth-led SMEs will receive post-incubation support, involving entrepreneurship capacity-building, financial startup support, business mentorship, and investments.