A panel of judges has finished first phase of the selection of 150 finalists of the Business Plan Competition (BPC).
According to officials the finalists were selected from a total 1,000 applicants.

Antoine Manzi, Director of Entrepreneurship at the Private Sector Federation (PSF). revealed that, "The selection has been completed and we are going to inform them this evening. They will later be trained on business plan writing.”

After a two weeks training, the selected lot will be expected to put down their business ideas into business plan formats which will later be put under scrutiny by different institutions to select the best 100.

The finalists will qualify for the Rwf10 million prize and a grant of Rwf1 million for technical assistance to set off their businesses. 

Business Blan Competition was started by PSF in 2004 to expand the private sector with job creation being priority. Over the years the beneficiaries have increased from 5 to 100.

The competition was postponed twice due to financial and procurement it was supposed to have taken off in August last year but was pushed to mid October last year.

The application procedure required the interested person to get an application form on which he writes a business idea.
This time the competition is more specific to vocational and technical students. During this edition 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 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.

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