Rwanda’s growth strategy rests on its people. As investment flows into technology, financial services and hospitality, the question facing employers in Kigali is increasingly a practical one: how fast can an institution grow its own next generation of managers, rather than recruit them from outside?

That question is the business case behind the arrival of Talent Lab International, a leadership development and human-capital firm headquartered in Mauritius, which officially launched its Rwandan operations on September 11 at Kigali Marriott Hotel.

The launch brought together human-resource professionals, business leaders, entrepreneurs and development-sector representatives with an interest in leadership, people development and the future of work.

Founder Adilla Diouman Mosafeer said the firm had come to Rwanda because of the strength of its workforce, not in spite of it.

"Rwandans don’t need to be put on the international scene. I think you already are,” she said.

"You have a lot to teach other countries, including Mauritius. Rwanda has a strong workforce and real capability. What a fast-growing economy needs is a structured way of moving that capability up through the organisation, so the next director comes from inside the institution. That is the one important thing we are here to do.”

The company is registered with the Rwanda Development Board and operates from a permanent base in Kigali with a locally recruited team, positioning itself as a resident provider rather than a visiting one.

Its first contact with the market came in May, through a SheTrades mission facilitated by the Mauritius Economic Development Board, the Private Sector Federation (PSF) specialized cluster and the Rwanda Development Board, which connected women entrepreneurs from Mauritius with their Rwandan counterparts.

Mosafeer said subsequent research into Rwanda’s Vision 2050 reinforced her view that the firm’s work sat directly alongside the country’s own human-capital priorities.

An international method, delivered locally

Talent Lab International’s offer is built around a method rather than a catalogue of courses. Its programmes are grounded in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and in the Neuro-Linguistic Enneagram, a profiling system used to map how individuals think, decide and behave under pressure.

As a team of internationally certified coaches and trainers, they also work with Hogan Assessments and Career Connections to conduct custom-built leadership assessments and psychometric tests.

The firm operates in partnership with Mind Transformations, a Singapore institute founded in 1997 by NLP master trainer Barney Wee, which has trained more than 4,000 professionals across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Mauritius, in sectors including banking and financial services, technology, government, logistics and professional services.

Through that partnership, Talent Lab International brings internationally accredited coaching and NLP practitioner certification to Kigali – credentials Rwandan professionals have generally had to travel abroad to obtain.

The firm also offers academic pathways through Ducere Global Business School, whose qualifications are awarded by partner universities in the United Kingdom, Australia and Europe. For the launch of Talent Lab International in Kigali, 100% scholarships on tuition fees are being offered for the Kennedy University, Chicago. All courses are run online.

Building leadership from within

Mosafeer said their method begins with helping individuals understand themselves before developing their leadership skills.

"We work on the individual to help the individual understand themselves better. And then the leadership training comes through,” she said. "We build that self-understanding, that compassion from within, before we take that person into the external environment.”

The objective, she said, is to help people identify their triggers, behavioural tendencies and limiting beliefs on a good day and a bad day, before examining how these shape their interactions with colleagues and their approach to leadership. Modern working life, she argues, has turned "human beings” into "human doings” – constantly performing and producing while losing contact with themselves.

She gave the example of a team in which one member is a perfectionist, another is driven by control, and a third is naturally focused on helping others. Left unexamined, she said, those differences create friction; understood, they become an advantage.

"We bring the different personalities together once they have built the self-awareness, and make them talk to each other. They are better aligned. They understand each other better,” she said. And the cohesion that follows is phenomenal.

Preparing leaders for a changing workplace

Mosafeer said the firm is entering Rwanda at a point when workplaces everywhere are becoming more complex and technology, particularly artificial intelligence, is reshaping jobs. Referring to VUCA – volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity – and BANI, which describes a brittle, anxious, non-linear and often incomprehensible world, she said traditional leadership approaches were no longer sufficient.

"We cannot use the skills of the 1980s anymore and apply them to today’s world. The world has evolved,” she said.

She also argues that leadership is not confined to senior executives. "Everyone bottom up is a leader,” she said. "In our house, we are leaders. In our family, we are leaders.”

"Even in the age of AI, even in the age where technology is showing that it will take over certain aspects of our jobs, even more, we need strong leaders,” she said.

A more cosmopolitan Kigali raises the bar

Rwandan entrepreneur Victor Nkindi said Rwanda’s shift towards a knowledge-based economy, including growing investment in technology and in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is increasing demand for skilled workers. He said Rwandans should be able to reach international standards without everyone having to travel abroad to train.

"Rwanda is taking up to foreign standards, like in IT, like in the food and hospitality business. We are looking to attract foreign clientele,” Nkindi said. "We don’t have time to send everybody to school in the Western countries.”

Gloria Kamanzi Uwizera, founder of Co Creations and chairperson of the African Women Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), Rwanda Chapter, said Talent Lab International’s arrival comes as Kigali develops into a cosmopolitan city hosting international visitors, businesses and events.

"We are good in certain areas and it’s time that we increase the quality,” Uwizera said, adding that Rwanda should equip more young people with international-standard skills so they can compete in regional and global markets.

Diane Mukasahaha Kamanzi, chief executive of Dikam and vice-president of the Private Sector Federation at national level, said businesses also need to look beyond employees’ technical abilities and consider their wider well-being.

"We really need to have different businesses, different companies here in Rwanda, accommodating their human resources and leadership in their projects,” she said.

First programmes open in October

Talent Lab International’s first public workshops in Rwanda run on October 1 and 2 in Kigali. The first day, "Leading Under Pressure: The Champion Mindset Masterclass”, focuses on the individual; the second, "The People Code: Turning Personality Differences into Team Performance”, focuses on teams and on how managers can better understand, guide and support their people.

Both are open to executives, managers and individual professionals, with places limited to 30 per day.

For registration and enquiries, contact inyange@talentlabinternational.com or call 799 534 394.