HUYE - Business women in Huye district have been called upon to build self-confidence if they are to survive in the business world.

The call was made during the closure of a two-day training workshop facilitated by the US government agency USAID under a support programme known as business climate, legal and institutional reform.

The workshop exposed the attendees to  various aspects of entrepreneurial excellence such as character and confidence building, goal setting  and communication.

Rehmah Kasule, one of the facilitators, said that women entrepreneurs have been advised on how to set up a mentoring club where they will meet each month to share best practices.

She added that if women support each other regularly, more women will become successful entrepreneurs.
"Mentoring is like a candle, if I have one in my hand I can light up so many other candles without losing my glow. Support for other  women of Rwanda is the way to go,” said Kasule.

Sharing her personal experience as a budding business woman, Kasule said that she started from scratch in 1998 to set up one of the much sought after branding, marketing, communication and media planning firms in Uganda.

She has even expanded her horizon to set up  another entrepreneurship and leadership development firm that targets youth and women.

With an air of accomplished woman, Kasule says that she was one of the delegates who met US President Barack Obama, during a presidential summit on entrepreneurship recently.

She said that some Rwandan women are very experienced while others are just starting. She cited lack of access to loans as one of the challenges  women entrepreneurs are faced with.

"With the training in entrepreneurial excellence and with access to finance being made a reality women have to step up their game within business to boost their livelihoods,” she said

"We need to create a new generation of women leaders and entrepreneurship offers the best avenue for doing so.”
Clotilde Ntirushwa, one of the participants, decried the tendency by unscrupulous business persons to hijack other people’s brands.

"I run a clothes designing business but because of its success, its brand name ‘Ambaruberwe’ is now used in different parts of the country without my consent. I have been advised on how to register it under the Copyright Law,” said Ntirushwa.

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