Chancen International, a non-profit organization providing education financing for young people in Africa, on Saturday, June 3, met with Rwandan university student beneficiaries support, stakeholders and partners.
The 2023 Chancen annual general meeting, sponsored by Bank of Kigali, drew in hundreds of students from four institutions, who benefit from the organization's education financing model.
Chancen prides itself on providing "a fair, ethical financial product" that opens doors to higher education to young people.
Through its Income Share Agreement, Chancen provides financial solutions to students who can't otherwise afford higher education to study and pay back when they get employment.
"Our vision is to prove that you can ethically and sustainably finance education for young people that leads to employment," said Chancen co-founder and chief executive Officer Batya Blankers.
With our model, which is called an income share agreement, we want to prove to the financial markets that use our investment and by giving them high quality skills development and education, they can get good jobs and contribute to the economy and repay the insurance and community.
Today, Chancen has financed the education of around 2500 students in Rwanda, Blankers said.
Up to 70 per cent of them come from very low income households, 65 per cent come from rural areas.
The organisation's vision for Rwanda is to finance 10,000 people in the next three years across many different tertiary education institutions, like TVET colleges and universities.
Chancen also has operations in South Africa and is planning to start operating soon in Kenya.
Apart from financing education of young people from low income households, the organisation also provides entrepreneurship and financial literacy trainings to its members to improve their employability and competitiveness on the job market.
During the annual general meeting, themed "Building on Our Success," there were different panel discussions on entrepreneurship skills and financial education presented by experts among them Mireille Karera, founder and executive chairwoman at Kora Coaching, Sam Tayengwa, Chief Executive Officer at Transunion.
Bank of Kigali had an opportunity to educate the students on financial literacy and promotion of retail and small and medium enterprise (SME) products.
Currently, Chancen works with four higher learning institutions in Rwanda, namely INES Ruhengeri, Davis College Akilah, Kepler College and Rwanda Institute of Cooperatives, Entrepreneurship, and Microfinance (RICEM).
Students who have received the Chancen support said it opened new education opportunities for them.
"When I completed secondary school and was admitted into university, my family couldn't afford to pay the tuition, and then I learned about Chancen and applied for its support. It helps me so much because they also give us a monthly allowance," said Egide Niyomugabo, a first-year student at Kepler College.
Laetitia Rukundo, a second-year student of food biotechnology at INES Ruhengeri, said: "Getting financial support from Chancen has enabled me to study my preferred faculty. Apparently, the students supported from Chancen are among the top performers in my school."