The Mastercard
Center for Inclusive Growth has confirmed commitment to a grant
of up to USD$1 million over three years to support the growth of small business
owners in Africa and Rwanda particularly, reports ITRealms.
Ensuring
that the first phase of the roll out of the grant is successful, Mastercard has
partnered with the African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC),
locally known as Inkomoko. The team develops and grooms entrepreneurs in
industries such as technology, agriculture and energy – three of East Africa’s
biggest and fastest growing sectors, and priorities in Rwanda.
ITRealms recalls that this was
proclaimed during the 2016 World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF Africa) in
Kigali, Rwanda, which saw Mastercard committed to supporting Rwanda’s vision of
financially empowering its citizens, with the grant established to support achieving
this goal. The commitment is in line with driving poverty out of Rwanda through
job creation, ensuring gender equality through equal access to opportunities,
and delivering decent work prospects which will enable economic growth.
Entrepreneurs
and small business owners are key drivers of the local economy – currently
making up 97.8 percent of the private sector in
the country. Inkomoko’s one-year programme removes the barriers local
entrepreneurs face in the areas of skills development, networks, and financing,
through providing mentoring, technical support, capacity building, and direct
access to affordable capital.
What
makes the partnership between Mastercard and Inkomoko unique is the support of
both Rwandan nationals as well as some of the 160,000 refugees currently living
in Rwanda. In collaboration with the United Nations Agency on
Refugees (UNHCR), the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs
(MIDIMAR) and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Inkomoko will roll out a
programme aimed at fostering the social and economic independence of refugees
in Rwanda.
With
a large population of refugees, the role of private and public partnerships
remains crucial to the inclusive growth and development of all those displaced.
Mastercard, together with the African Entrepreneur Collective, has committed to
assisting entrepreneurs in Rwanda regardless of their circumstances, a vision
shared and driven by the Rwandan government.
“Connecting
entrepreneurs, especially women and refugees, to the networks that power the
modern world – like financial services – unlocks their economic potential and
accelerates a cycle of equitable and sustainable economic growth,” says Shamina
Singh, President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
The
Inkomoko entrepreneurship programme aims to restore the dignity of refugees
living in Rwanda by empowering these small business owners with vital support
to grow their businesses. The programme will work with 4,000 refugees in Rwanda
over the next three years.
“The
intention is to connect refugees with the tools and skills necessary to enable
them to become self-sufficient and independent entrepreneurs to improve their
own livelihoods, create jobs for others in their communities, and contribute to
Rwanda’s larger economic development. Rwanda’s refugee camps and host
communities are places of vibrant social and economic activity with bustling
markets, shops, restaurants, and industries,” says Julienne Oyler, Executive
Director of African Entrepreneur Collective. “Supporting and developing
entrepreneurs in these areas will have tremendous impact on the communities
themselves and the country at large.”
Rwanda
has become a bustling centre of commerce in Africa, and by implementing
programmes that broadly target high potential local entrepreneurs, broad-based
economic growth can be advanced by equipping the country’s next generation of
business owners with the right tools to hone their financial literacy – the
foundation of financial inclusion and growth.
In
this way, the support provided as part of the grant not only falls in with the
country’s Vision 2020 strategy to create a knowledge-based, cashless economy
with 90 percent financial inclusion, it also contributes to Rwanda meeting its
Sustainable Development Goals, most notably in terms of eradicating poverty and
driving gender equality through the empowerment and entrepreneurship.
Facilitating
inclusive growth is an important way to build social and economic development,
and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth remains committed to working
with partners in both the public and private spheres to drive that development.
“Microentrepreneurs drive the local economy, and through our partnership with
African Entrepreneur Collective, we look forward to empowering them with the
tools and training to grow their businesses and advance the lives of their
families and communities,” concludes Singh.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
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