BK Urumuri Initiative in partnership with Inkomoko Entrepreneurship Development have selected 25 entrepreneurs with eco-friendly businesses to undergo a free six-month Business Acceleration Programme. The BK Urumuri Initiative started in 2017 to promote the Rwandan economy and empower local entrepreneurs. Inkomoko is an advisory firm and impact investor that helps entrepreneurs successfully grow their businesses to create thriving communities. Having projects that respond to environment and climate change problems was the main criteria for entrepreneurs to be selected under the 7th edition of the BK Urumuri initiative in 2023. To be eligible for this year’s programme, a business had to be based in Rwanda, have annual revenue under Rwf500 million, be registered for at least one year, and demonstrate financial profitability or a plan to reach profitability within the next year as well as show a track record in environmental and social sustainability in production and practices. “The initiative this year is unique because BK wants to make sure we mitigate the effects of climate change. Now this is a global pandemic and it is about climate action. We need businesses that are playing their role to make sure environment sustainability is achieved where the current generation benefits but do not ruin it for the generation to come,” said Collins Kinoti, ESG manager at BK Foundation. The six-month mentorship for those selected includes training, assessment, and consulting, business advice and investment readiness. “With BK Urumuri initiative, we want to play our part in promoting and advancing economic empowerment. We will teach the selected entrepreneurs how to scale up their jobs, advance and seek capital, penetrate the market and even look for investors for their businesses to make sure they create more jobs, employ more women and that they serve the purpose of economic empowerment both at national and global level,” he said. Kinoti noted that the beneficiaries also have the opportunity to scale and grow their businesses, create jobs, and secure an interest-free loan from Bank of Kigali adding that $25,000 was set aside to help provide an interest-free loan to the finalists after six-month training. Helle Dahl Rasmusse, the Director of Business Growth Services (BGS) at Inkomoko, said the 25 entrepreneurs will get individual business advisors who will follow them through the whole process. “The advisor will do an assessment of their businesses, looking where the businesses are right now in terms of financial management, and in terms of services and marketing. And then based on the assessment, they will work on a plan and better implement processes and systems so that the business is ready for more growth,” she said. She said that some of the particular things to do include helping in financing management, setting up bookkeeping systems and analysing numbers to make better business decisions. “We also help on sales strategies, inventory management systems and others. Finally, we will select some of the businesses that will get a chance to pitch. Those ones that we select will help some of them get ready for the pitch suitable for an investor and financing,” she noted. Gisele Teta, one of the selected entrepreneurs, is optimistic that a free six-month Business Acceleration Programme could boost her business. Her project produces seedling containers or bags (Ibihoho) from banana fibre to replace polythene bags to reduce use of plastics in the agriculture sector. “The business skills will help tap into the available market and if I get the funding, I have to increase production,” she said. Jean Claude Manirafasha, another selected entrepreneur and the CEO of Future Contracting Company, said they have a project dubbed “Smart Irrigated Kitchen Garden.” “The project aims to harvest rainwater and use it for smart irrigation in kitchen gardens to address food insecurity and malnutrition. We use both drip and automatic irrigation with sensors to inform about soil humidity and timer to tell when to irrigate and when to stop. “The skills to be gained through the six-month mentorship could take our business to the next level. If we get a free-interest loan, it can be a boost. We have so far built 120 kitchen gardens with rainwater harvesting and irrigation systems,” he said.
