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$50 million to support youth invest in hospitality, tourism sectors

Wednesday August 15 2018
By MOSES K. GAHIGI

Rwanda’s efforts to lower unemployment numbers, and build a wealth-creating generation of young people, are set to be boosted by MasterCard Foundation’s $50 million programme.

It is expected that up to 30,000 youth will be facilitated to start businesses across the tourism and hospitality sectors in the next five years.

The programme dubbed Hanga Ahazaza will work closely with local financial services and literacy providers, like Inkomoko, grofin to equip the youth with skills, while also helping them identify and start businesses in the tourism sector.

“The SME’s are not understood by banks and other financial service providers, we are engaging them and jointly looking at where gaps are, so that we can fix them, and see that these entrepreneurs are adequately supported” said Rica Rwigamba, programme manager for Youth Livelihoods at MasterCard foundation Rwanda.

The low-hanging-fruit business opportunities that are looked at include, opening more event organising SME’s and others in the entertainment side of the tourism sector.

The general unemployment rate in Rwanda stands at 13.2 per cent .

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“Event firms are not as many as the market would require for instance. We are also looking at other opportunities on the entertainment side of hospitality. Those are just a few, our partners like Inkomoko will be helping in identification of the opportunities in the market” said Mr Rwigamba.

Each year, 125,000 young people are expected to join the labour force in Rwanda, but they face significant barriers to employment, and more than 65 per cent of youth between the ages of 14 and 35 are considered underemployed.

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