Instilling into Rwandans the entrepreneurial spirit

On Thursday, April 11, 2013, in far off Oklahoma, US, a young Rwandan student was honoured with the prestigious Creativity Award by Creative Oklahoma, a nonprofit organisation that advances Oklahoma’s creative economy through creativity and innovation-based initiatives in education, commerce and culture. The award was in recognition of his efforts in empowering Rwandan youths to innovate, through the Emerging Leaders and Entrepreneurs (ELE), a charity organization he helped found in 2011. Basically, it is a youth-oriented platform for innovation and entrepreneurship where students get to be connected to innovators, advocates, professionals, mentors, and potential investors through a string of activities. Yves Iradukunda, the CEO, still remembers vividly the early days of ELE. With a tinge of nostalgia, he says: “It’s been an eventful ride from the time we started ELE Rwanda from a residential apartment in Oklahoma in December 2011.” The idea was born between him and a friend and fellow student then, Timothy Kaboya, now the chief operations officer of ELE. Iradukunda and Kaboya are just two of the dozens of Rwandan students that, since 2006, have been given the opportunity for higher education through a partnership between the Rwandan government and the Oklahoma Christian University. But a particular incident in 2011 is what had sparked the idea in Iradukunda’s mind. He says: “While drilling water wells in Rwanda with a group of fellow Oklahoma Christian University students during the summer break of 2011, it suddenly occurred to me that clean water was not the only challenge Rwanda in particular and the African continent in general were faced with. There were other challenges like poverty, lack of jobs, limited access to technology, and lack of homegrown solutions for Rwanda’s specific problems.” This, he says, compelled him to consider being part of the solution to the problem in the best way that he could. At the time, he confesses he did not know how. After brainstorming and seeking wise counsel from far and wide, he launched ELE Rwanda that December. “We decided to empower the community, especially the youth, to find innovative solutions to their problems using creativity and talents with the vision to build a sustainable economy. We believe that entrepreneurship is the most effective way to bring prosperity to Rwanda. With more than 50 per cent of the Rwandan population under the age of 18, youth-led entrepreneurship will be the main driver of growth in Rwanda’s economy. Therefore, ELE Rwanda desires to instill into young Rwandans the entrepreneurial spirit,” he contends. “We sat down and brainstormed about a way we could bring a source of positive change. How we could aggregate all the positive youth energy to achieve even more.” Basically, the two embarked on knocking at as many random doors as they could, until a few eventually started to open. His colleague Kaboya says: “Truth is, whenever you strongly believe in an innovative idea, you will always get somebody who believes in it too. I would say for every 10 doors we knocked on, only one opened. However, that one open door was worth the wait, for more soon opened.” ELE Rwanda’s theme for 2013 is; “Rebuilding a Nation Through Innovation”. After seeing the charity through its take-off stage in the US, Iradukunda now feels it is the time to come home. And for good. Newly arrived in the country from his long hiatus in Oklahoma, he says: “My homeland, Rwanda, continues to rebuild itself after the tragic Genocide of 1994. It is my belief that entrepreneurship is and will continue to be the driving force for developing the country. Going forward, therefore, my objective is to be a successful entrepreneur and create jobs for many youths who are struggling to sustain themselves and their families. Even more, I want to encourage youth innovation and entrepreneurship by creating a centre of creation that will help the youth to use their talents to create homegrown solutions (e.g. business start-ups). Mode of work ELE Rwanda reaches its target beneficiaries through a number of projects geared at student-led youth innovation and entrepreneurship. Among these is the ELE Rwanda Annual Entrepreneurship Summit – an event that brings together hundreds of students in Oklahoma, US, to be inspired by innovators and business leaders, and to meet with potential business partners and investors. Last year, the summit brought together 200 students to Oklahoma Christian University from all over the US. This year, the summit will take place at Oklahoma Christian University from August 1-3. The ELE Rwanda Business Plan Competition challenges the youth to develop creative and innovative solutions to their own problems. Thirty students participated in last year’s business plan competition. “The ultimate goal for the competition is to give the youth opportunities to discover their skills and talents and use them to create homegrown businesses. This way, ELE Rwanda creates investment opportunities in potentially successful ideas proposed by young Rwandans,” he says. “We have also designed a creativity and innovation camp to challenge students to work in groups, and combine technological tools with their skills and talents to create solutions to existing challenges in their communities. This year’s camp will take place at IPRC Kicukiro under the theme: “WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES”.