After the Business Plan Competition (BPC) was postponed twice due to financial and procurement constraints it has been confirmed that the event will finally take off on 9th this month. This was revealed by the Antoine Manzi, the Director of Entrepreneurship at Private Sector Federation (PSF) at his office in Gikondo. Manzi said that as the application exercise commences they will be conducting a national wide sensitization for the competition. The competition was supposed to have taken off August but was pushed to mid October. He said that the sensitization will last for two weeks. The application procedure requires the interested person to get an application form on which he writes a business idea. They will later be trained on how to write business plans and a selection will be made by a panel of judges of 100 beneficiaries. The finalists will be given a loan of Rwf10m and grant of Rwf2m for technical assistance. But this year round the competition is more specific to vocational and technical students. During this year’s competition, BPC will also consider students from Technical and Vocational Training institutions to presenting business plans in line with their technical skills. “Apart from doing advocacy, we shall provide internship to 100 students who will be put in various industries,” he said.There are close to 76 vocational and technical schools country wide. On the program some of the hands on activities to be considered include, painting, mechanic, carpentry, tailoring, electronics, wiring, masonry, design, hairdressing, aircraft, basic IT, and catering. Ends
