A 28-year-old graduate from College of Education at the University of Rwanda has developed an application dubbed “IsokoNyarwanda” with aim to facilitate e-commerce for Made-in-Rwanda products and other products. He is part of many entrepreneurs that have realised the potentials and benefits of e-commerce following the Covid-19 lockdown. The application available in AppStore on smart phones was developed following the first lockdown caused by Covid-19 pandemic which halted the monthly exhibition of young entrepreneurs and women’s locally made products that used to take place at Car-free zone in Kigali city. Most of the young entrepreneurs who used to exhibit at car-free zone are the graduates from high school and university who created jobs through making locally-made products John Migambi, the Manager of Bronze Events Ltd that is usually involved in the coordination of the young entrepreneurs to promote locally made products at car-free zone, said that different products can be traded through the e-commerce platform. They include food and beverages, decorations, garments, shoes, furniture and other domestic materials, construction materials, office materials, selling land plots, cars, materials that are rented among many others. “The idea to develop the application came from learning lessons from Covid-19 pandemic when we were lying idle at home without operations and traveling. My friends and I would not be able to order products we need due to lockdown since doing unnecessary movements could put us into the risk of contaminating the virus and that is why I started to develop the e-commerce application,” he said. He said the e-commerce platforms are for all products a person can need to buy or sell. “Both buyers and sellers in Rwanda and abroad can use the platform. An entrepreneur can post their products and sell them while clients can also choose what they need and order,” he said. The user downloads the application from the AppStore. “The vendor can upload photos of their products in the application, prices and address so that clients can view them and order for what they need to buy. On making an order, the vendor delivers the products to clients,” he explained. “The platform aims at exhibiting vendors’ products online since many people can access it from wherever they are. After five months, we expect to start charging traders using the platform but currently, it is for free. The platform will also help young entrepreneurs and women who make use of the car-free zone to promote locally made products,” he said.
