Global week targets youth, women entrepreneurs

Youth and women will be the focus in this year’s Global Entrepreneurship week, a campaign aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in the country. The global entrepreneurship week is an initiative which started in 2008 that helps to network, mentor and coach young people to unleash their potential and create change in the world through entrepreneurship.Benjamin Cox, Country Director Babison Rwanda, says that youth and women play a pivotal role in the development of the country’s economy and empowering them will translate into growth and development. “We want to have tangible and productive businesses started by entrepreneurs locally, so the youth and women should be a major target,” Cox said during a Global Entrepreneurship week stakeholders meeting in Kigali. During the GEW week, scheduled from 12th to 18th November this year. Under the theme ‘Empowering the youth and women for productivity’, focuses on mentoring and supporting entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. GEW stakeholders include Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of youth and ICT and Rwanda Development Board “The goal is to expose people to the benefits of entrepreneurship through a series of activities and to motivate them to explore their own innovative entrepreneurial ideas,” he addedThe Global week will also introduce the notion of entrepreneurial behavior to people less than 30 years of age those who may have considered it as a path in their life.“We want to network young people across national boundaries in a global effort to find new ideas at the intersection of cultures and disciplines,” Chris Smith, Director at BabisonRwanda notedAccording to central bank, loans issued by financial institutions to women increased by 22 per cent in 2011, up from 16 per cent in 2006, indicating a warm outlook of women access to credit.Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is an international movement of individuals and organisations that come together every November to celebrate entrepreneurship.Smith adds, “We enlist active and inspirational entrepreneurs around the world to coach and mentor the next generation as they pursue their entrepreneurial dreams”.Hatari Sekoko, a local businessman and investor, notes that the youth have the potential to start great businesses if they are mentored and helped to shape their dream ventures.“What young people need is to mentor them and change their mind set to understand that entrepreneurship is the best way to develop our country,” Sekoko said.Cox noted that through collaboration, entrepreneurs can be helped to catalyse innovation, launch new ventures, support the growth of established businesses, and foster an improved entrepreneurial environment.Rwanda joined the global week last year which saw over 12,000 entrepreneurs participating while globally it attracted over seven million, a move seen to link Rwanda’s efforts to promote entrepreneurship to the rest of the world.

News

Global week targets youth, women entrepreneurs