The Kigali School of Finance and Banking (SFB) through its affiliation to William Davidson Institute (WDI) will offer entrepreneurial scholarships to Rwandan women.

The scholarship programme known as Goldman Sachs Business School Scholarship Fund will focus on underprivileged but qualified women regardless of age and is to be offered per year, for four years.

According to Professor Krishna Govender, SFB Rector, the move is to empower women through business education.

Adding: "Rwandan women have traditionally been denied opportunities in schooling and business. So it is a productive opportunity to them.”

The scholarships follow a partnership between Goldman Sachs Group, a global banking firm and WDI, the leading institutes selected to bring business education to Rwandan women.

"WDI-Goldman Sachs partnership could not have come at a better time,” The Rector said.

He also revealed that at a recent conference on ‘Gender, Nation Building and the role of Parliaments,’ President Paul Kagame said ‘whether one considers access to education, ownership of business or participation in decision-making, the story is the same - women are excluded from the mainstream.”

Govender continued "The generous support of Goldman Sachs will be particularly relevant to Rwanda, and go a long way in ensuring that women are no longer marginalized but empowered to take up their rightful places in the society.”

Robert Kennedy, Executive Director of the WDI said Goldman Sachs, had started an initiative ‘10,000 Women’ to provide 10,000 women, predominantly in developing and emerging markets around the world, with business education.

"In many of these countries, there is very little entrepreneurial activity and few women receive even a basic education,” he explained.

Such a program, he said is an investment in the half of the population neglected and whose talents are not being used. 

Entrepreneurship education gives women a leg up in gaining wealth, becoming independent, and participating in the transformation of their countries.

Goldman Sachs Entrepreneurship Certificate Program will also give participants the knowledge and skills needed to launch or expand business enterprises in Rwanda.

Kennedy also revealed that Goldman Sachs approached WDI, seeking ideas of ways to work together to positively impact the lives of women in the central African country.

He continued that the firm knew of the Institute’s successes in turning the SFB into a regional center of excellence in business education.

WDI proposals for the 10,000 Women Project were approved by Goldman Sachs.

And over the course of the six-month programme by WDI, 30 women will create business plans to be transferred from school to the real world.

This will be offered through the newly created Center for Entrepreneurship Development (CED) established at the SFB.

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