A few days ago, various entrepreneurs in Rwanda came together to form the Afri-Global Cooperation Program Ltd., which aims to connect those with profitable ideas and investors with capital.
It is a decision taken after realizing that there are many small entrepreneurs who are held back by the lack of capital, knowledge and other necessary documents for their business to be productive.
Bloomberg recently reported that at least eight out of ten new entrepreneurs close because they fail to make the journey within two years.
Michael Shyaka Nyarwaya, the manager of Afri-Global Cooperation Program Ltd, said that it is not unique to foreigners because even in Rwanda there are many small entrepreneurs who fail due to the lack of support in terms of skills and ideas.
He said that is why they launched this new agency, which aims to help 30,000 small entrepreneurs in the next five years.
“We did research and found that between investors and small and medium entrepreneurs there is a gap in terms of discussion so that each can learn from the other by sharing experiences,” he said.
He continued, “We don’t accept money because we are not a financial institution, but we connect them with someone who will talk about his project well, and organize it through investors who like it and put money into it. It is possible that an investor will come to cooperate with you, buy shares, finance you or even buy your company if you invest 100 million Frw and give you 500 million Frw.
It has been shown that small and medium businesses, which account for 90% of the private sector in Africa, employ 80% of the private sector.
Shyaka said that if these small and medium businesses were given the power, they would develop African countries as they have done elsewhere.
He said, “If you look at the United States, this country takes about $70 billion to invest in developing projects, China invests about $60.6 billion, England invests $32 billion, India invests $28 billion, unlike in Africa where they don’t invest money in small businesses.”
He said that there are many challenges that small entrepreneurs face sometimes because they do not have enough knowledge which is what they will focus on.
He said, “If you know that if you start a company you must have a lawyer, that’s when we advise that person that he must have a lawyer so that his company will not fall into losses. The person who started the project must be aware that he has to pay taxes, we have to advise him.”
They also plan to organize meetings that connect small entrepreneurs and investors in different parts of Rwanda, to make it easier because “The reason people don’t get capital is that they don’t have a way to connect them with the people they reach. When one has information it is easier.”
Shyaka said that if they help 30,000 entrepreneurs in the next five years, they hope that at least 150,000 people will be employed because there will be jobs and the country’s economy will grow.
He said, “In the vision of 2050, we will reach at least 300 thousand projects, if they provide employment to five people for each project, 1.5 million people will be employed. That is Rwanda and Afri-Global should work in other countries to show that Africa’s vision of 2063 will be achieved.”
Afri Global aims to reach every sector in Rwanda in the future so that they can be close to entrepreneurs, so all productive ideas are refined early, those who can be connected to investors with money are made.
