Hundreds of jobseekers yesterday turned up at Petit Stade, Remera for the third Kigali Employment Fair which attracted over 60 companies looking for candidates to fill available vacancies. 

Janvier Dukuzumuremyi, a university graduate from Musanze District, said he hoped to get a job from the fair.

"I have applied for jobs in different companies but what I realised is that there is still nepotism and other forms of corruption in recruitment. I hope the fair will be a fair recruitment platform,” he told The New Times.

He added, "The reason why I believe I will get a job this time round is because my resume matches with the requirements of several job offers.”

However, Jean Nepo Munezero, a high school graduate, said he had no hope in getting hired through the fair.

"Since I completed high school in 2007, I have been applying for jobs that require the qualification that I have, but I’m yet to get one. I don’t hope to get a job from this fair even if I have seen many vacancies there on the notice board”.

He added, "I am also skeptical of the way they are receiving applications and promise to call the applicants later without having them first sit examinations.”

Speaking at the official opening of the third employment fair to be organised by the Kigali Employment Service Centre (KESC), Monique Mukaruriza, the Mayor of the City of Kigali, said such platforms help employers to save money that would otherwise be spent on recruitment process, while they also facilitate jobseekers to easily meet with potential employers.

KESC is a public one-stop career centre run the City of Kigali in partnership with the Ministry of Public Service and Labour, and Germany Development Cooperation.

"The fair increases chances of those who have no job to get one,” said the mayor.

She said the exhibition was a win-win opportunity where both parties (employers and jobseekers) meet.

"It is also an important contribution towards achieving the objectives of the National Employment Programme (NEP), we all have a responsibility to help increase job opportunities”, Mukaruriza added.

According to a survey conducted by Kigali Employment Service Centre, 1511 jobs were offered by 150 companies since the setting up of the centre three years ago, while 380 jobseekers (38 per cent of the applicants) got or created own jobs with 60 others (6 per cent) getting internship placements out of the 2022 registered jobseekers.

For the third edition, over 800 jobseekers have registered while over 60 companies with job offers are participating.

Leopold Ruzibiza, the programme manager at Strive Foundation that recruited 12 employees during the last Kigali Employment Service Fair, said the initiative helped them save time and resources they would have spent on recruitment process.

He said, "It was expensive to recruit an employee as it was costing much, especially the pre-selection process as we could receive thousands of applications. But with the KESC, we get the pre-selection service for free or we can just pick potential employees that they can provide us”.

Samuel Mulindwa, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Public Service and Labour, hailed the contribution of KESC towards promotion of employment and disclosed that similar centres are to be created in satellite cities around the country.

Services offered by the Kigali Employment Service Centre include provision of labour market information, job and internship placements, opportunity scouting, career guidance in secondary schools, job search strategy training, IT training and free IT services, entrepreneurship training and coaching, and women mentorship programme.

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