Based in Toronto, Canada, the MasterCard Foundation was created in 2006. The Foundation works with several organisations in different countries to provide greater access to education, skills training and financial services for people living in poverty, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa. Last week, a delegation of board members from the foundation visited Rwanda to assess the performance of the projects they support. The high-level delegation was led by MasterCard Foundation president Reeta Roy. The New Times' Solomon Asaba caught with her for an exclusive interview.

Below are the excerpts;

Talk to us about MasterCard Foundation and its work in Rwanda

To date, we have invested about US$50 million in Rwanda and we are looking forward to increasing this investment. This week (last week), we have had very encouraging conversations with President Paul Kagame and various ministers about what the next stage of investment could look like.

Our work falls into three categories: education, financial inclusion and youth training. We want to make sure that future investments align with the government’s priorities so we can maximise the impact. We understand that you support projects in different countries, specifically why are you in Rwanda?

The MasterCard Foundation focuses almost entirely on Sub-Saharan Africa and currently works in 25 countries. We choose to invest in countries where conditions allow for the greatest impact, and Rwanda is a shining example of such a country.

Rwandans are entrepreneurial and motivated. The Government has a vision and is open to partnerships in agriculture, entrepreneurship and ICT.

Who are your target beneficiaries?

The MasterCard Foundation believes that given the opportunity, anyone regardless of their start in life - can do great things. Our work is, therefore, focused on empowering people who are economically disadvantaged.

We see great opportunity for the continent in the growing youth population, so we also focus on empowering young people. Finally, we believe that women will play an important role in the transformation of the continent, so we ensure they are fairly represented in our programmes. Following your assessment of the different projects in which you are involved in Rwanda, what is your verdict, and specifically, where do you think you are now going to focus more based on your assessment?

The projects we support in Rwanda with organisations such as EDC, FAWE, DOT, TechnoServe, One Acre Fund and CARE are all performing very well.

We believe this is because of the Rwandan spirit, the strength of our partners and the close partnership with the Government. We are very happy to see such good results.

The Rwandan government is incredibly focused on the development of the country. The relatively small size of the country and the way it is organised around Vision 2020 is very unique and seems to be working well. Recently, you visited a number of youth training centres that provide entrepreneurial skills as a way to curb unemployment. As an expert in development, what more do you think should be done to address the problem of the youth failing to find employment?

This week, we spoke to the officials in the Education Ministry and discovered that our approach is very much aligned with that of the Government.

We believe that access to quality education and training opportunities, guided by relevant curricula, are key. We also believe that access to appropriate savings, credit and insurance service is very important.

Most of your support goes towards girl-child education. Drawing on your experience in many countries where you operate, why do you think there are still cases of discrimination against girls, especially in the are of education?

We believe there are a number of factors that contribute to gender discrimination. Some of them may have their origins in religious or cultural beliefs, but many often stem from more practical reasons.

For example, if a family has limited financial resources, they have to make difficult choices about which of their children they can send to school.

Young women can also be at a disadvantage because of early unwanted pregnancies. That said, research in the development sector shows that girls and young women are more likely to take advantage of opportunities that are presented to them.

Rwanda has prioritised promoting vocational training and has set a target of having 60 per cent students in TVET by 2017; What do you think needs to be done to increase the number of girls?

We believe there is a bright future for girls and young women in technical jobs. This has been proven in other countries around the world.

While they might not be considered traditional jobs today, we believe that girls and young women will be interested when they learn more about these roles.

When we visited a FAWE Secondary School that focuses on sciences, many girls talked about becoming engineers. At one of the TVET schools we visited, we saw boys in tailoring classes and girls in carpentry classes.

In Ghana, we support programmes where girls are becoming electricians or are learning construction so the seed has been planted!

Besides education, your Foundation is promoting financial inclusion; are there any challenges that you think Rwandans should work on to effect this?

The Rwandan government has done incredible work to raise the level of financial inclusion in the country and we understand they want to go even further.

One of the biggest obstacles for people who are not currently within the formal financial system is, simply, understanding the value of having a bank account.

For most, when they start to understand the benefits of savings and credit or purchasing insurance – the ability to smooth the peaks and troughs related to crop booms or failures, unexpected events such as sickness – the rationale and hopefully motivation become clear. What kind of opportunities can you cite here in Rwanda that people have not yet put focus on?

We believe that access to quality and relevant education and training is the basis of prosperity.

Also, with access to appropriate savings, credit and insurance products/services, we think real progress can be made in the alleviation of poverty across the continent.

Most youth are trained in job creation, but you realise that not every trainee has potential to do such; what kind of advice would you give in this situation?

We believe that everyone has potential given the right opportunity. Not everyone has to think about creating the next Google or mPesa (mobile phone-based money transfer services invented in Kenya). Our advice to young people is not to think of job-creation or entrepreneurship as pressure.

For many, small scale entrepreneurship may be a means rather than an end in itself. What I mean is that entrepreneurship might be what is needed to save enough money for or gain business experience to go for further education. You have extended support to the needy girls and most of them have performed very well in school. But do you ever follow up to find out how they are coping after completing school?

Yes. This is very important to the Foundation. We are doing two things in this regard. First, we are creating an Online Scholars Community which enables lifelong learning opportunities for Scholars.

It encourages graduates to mentor younger students and allows us to stay connected with everyone.

Second, we do longitudinal studies to better understand what students do after they graduate – whether they go on to do more education, find a job or start their own enterprise.

We are very focused on ensuring their successful transition to employment. Lastly, there is this issue of brain drain in many countries in Africa. Most students supported through the scholarships fail to come back home and implement their strategies, how can we address this challenge?

To avoid brain drain, we first support projects that help to improve access, quality and relevance of secondary and tertiary education in the country; so Rwandan students can study in Rwanda.

We have also ensured that more and more universities in The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Programme are based in Africa.

There, are of course, some students who may want to study abroad but the programme is structured in a way to keep students at all levels connected to Africa, for example, through internship opportunities and job fairs.

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