Private Sector starts campaigns on Business Plan Competitions

The competition mainly targets the youth and fresh graduates to address the unemployment problem and alleviate poverty in Rwanda. It also helps boost the performance of the private sector which is considered to be a backbone of the country’s economy. The Private Sector Federation (PSF) is to start campaigns for the Business Plan Competitions (BPC) for the year 2008-09 shortly this month. Antoine Rutayisire Manzi, the PSF Director of Entrepreneurship and Business Growth, said that the campaign will start with sensitisation in universities and districts countrywide on the competition’s importance in raising capital. “It highlights on putting business ideas on paper which most young entrepreneurs are afraid of,” he added. . This will be the fourth competition since inauguration in 2005 by PSF and World Bank through its Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP). The Competition is aimed at promoting entrepreneurial development. The competition mainly targets the youth and fresh graduates to address the unemployment problem and alleviate poverty in Rwanda. It also helps boost the performance of the private sector which is considered to be a backbone of the country’s economy. The campaign starts after the PSF announced its launch during the awarding ceremony of the third competition. This saw 50 young entrepreneurs earn guarantee funds totalling to US$500,000 (Rwf275.6m) and technical assistance for the purposes of building their businesses The funds are expected to double this year, since the number of winners targeted has doubled. About 100 entrepreneurships are targeted for this year. Application forms are also issued during the campaigns through Business Development Service (BDS) centres. They are collected two months latter for pre-selection. Finalists receive a comprehensive training on business plan writing skills, which they use to prepare them for their projects. The detailed second plans are collected and presented to Rwanda Development bank (BRD) for the final evaluation. Evaluation is carried out the same way as that of ordinary loan seekers. It is from these criteria that finalists are chosen. Ends