The School of Finance and Banking (SFB) has introduced the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED) in an effort to help equip entrepreneurs with the necessary skills in running their businesses. The school aims at becoming a Centre of Excellence which fosters enterprise development and creates a vibrant and competitive Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector.According to the Director of the centre, Olive N. Murinda, the department will play a critical role in enabling the creation of a critical mass of viable and dynamic SMEs which are strong in value addition. “We hope, through this centre, to create skilled business people who will drive the private sector as envisioned in the country’s vision 2020,” said Murinda.She explained that the centre would soon get a plan of action and a blend of academic staff and practitioners to manage and deliver its programmes. The Rector of SFB, Dr. Reid Whitlock, said that the move is most likely attract donors who will want to see more entrepreneurs trained hence making the centre an income generating venture for the institution. He further said that they were going to work on advertising the centre to potential customers. “When we give the best to the people, they will go around talking about us and many more will come which will give the centre more significance,” he said. Whitlock said that the school is also in talks with Oxford University to adopt it and that if all goes well, the U.K based University would play a big role in the centre’s advancement. SFB currently manages the Goldman Sachs 10,000 women programme in Rwanda in partnership with the University of Michigan. The programme is a five-year investment by Goldman Sachs to provide 10,000 underserved women around the world with a business and management education. Ends
