{Working with more than 100 students from all the University of Rwanda colleges at the college of Business and Economics, and a host of leading Rwandan entrepreneurs, the African Innovation Prize has created a weeklong conference, that will help the next generation of Rwandans seize the opportunity of enterprise.}
The Enterprise Rwanda Conference is an annual event, happening this week. At the Monday kick off, more than 100 students were in attendance, and notable speakers this week include fashion designer Sonia Mugabo, Igihe.com Managing Director MeilleurMurindabigwi, and Four Blooms restaurateur Nicole Kayoboke, among others.
Despite the entrepreneurial spirit of all the students, there is still a gap of structured support for them to learn and apply their skills outside the classroom.Enterprise Rwanda, sponsored by the African Innovation Prize, fills that gap by providing Rwandan university students in the hard and soft skills of entrepreneurship.
AIP’s Enterprise Rwanda week started from June 27th to 30th 2016 will enable students at the University of Rwanda and the Akilah Institute for Women to engage in product development, understand different business models, learn how to analyze a market, network, measure performance, and fund their initiatives. We know that we are putting their contributions to great use.
Entrepreneurship and innovation created much of the wealth and growth that we see in the developed countries today, and we hope that our initiative can contribute to the same bedrock of wealth creation for Rwanda.Speaking to the students as he officially launched Enterprise Rwanda, Prof. Rama Rao, Acting principle of the College of Business and Economics, urged them to think of great businesses but also putting in mind government policies like Vision 2020 and EDPRS in order to tap various opportunities through solving the needs of community.
AIP has already started impacting so many youths through these entrepreneurship workshops and the business plan competition where one of the prize winners, Jean BoscoNzeyimana represented Rwanda during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Stanford University in Silicon Valley, and he shared a stage with world billionaire and Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg on a panel moderated by US President Barack Obama.
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