Empowering Rwanda’s Young Entrepreneurs
It’s midday, and 28-year-old Janviere Tuyishimire is selling a variety of fashion items at her shop in the Huye district of southern Rwanda. In the last six months, she was able to double her working capital from $1,500 to $3,000. In addition, her bookkeeping and management skills have improved, which has allowed her to expand her business and invest in livestock.
This significant improvement was not expected when Janviere began her business by investing what little she had from savings from her college living allowance. She started her business selling shoes, bedcovers and bed sheets, with the dream of one day becoming a global entrepreneur.
Janviere Tuyishimire, a participant of the CRS’ Youth for Youth project in southern Rwanda, sells a variety of fashion items in her shop.
Photo by Lina Carene Ishimwe/CRS
However, as Janviere ventured into business while pursuing her studies, balancing responsibilities became a challenge. A lack of management and bookkeeping skills made her business ventures unprofitable. During that period, Janviere doubted herself, wondering what the future of her business would look like, as she kept recording daily losses. As her stock depleted, clients started losing trust in her.
In December 2022, Janviere enrolled in the Catholic Relief Services Youth for Youth project, which aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of young adults ages 18-30 in Rwanda by strengthening their digital entrepreneurship and addressing the issues they face. While participating in the project, Janviere learned business planning, product promotion, innovation, client management and how to digitally record transactions. Janviere began using the mobile app KudiBooks, which supported her business management and allowed her to digitally record business transactions, manage stock, and monitor profits and losses.
"Thanks to CRS’ Youth for Youth project, my business skills improved, and I can now digitally access the sales and purchase records on my smartphone.”
KudiBooks is a business management mobile application developed by Rwandan youth through CRS’ Youth for Youth project. The application helps other young entrepreneurs living in rural Rwanda to better manage their businesses and transition from paper-based to digital recording using their smartphones.
“I had doubts about the future of my business, and it was almost failing. Thanks to CRS’ Youth for Youth project, my business skills improved, and I can now digitally access the sales and purchase records on my smartphone,” Janviere says. “I now believe that I can be successful and that my business will keep growing in the coming months,” she adds.
Janviere is now making a monthly profit of $200 and in addition, she uses WhatsApp to attract more clients, promote her business, and announce new items in stock. She educates fellow entrepreneurs in her district on business development skills and how they can use the Kudibooks app to manage their businesses well.
Initiated in 2022, the Youth for Youth project is part of CRS’ longstanding strategy to invest in the potential of young Rwandans to enhance their lives, become digitally literate, and benefit from accessible and relevant business and financial services. The project is working to reach more than 48,000 youth entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 30 before 2025.
CRS Rwanda aims to empower young people in Rwanda to thrive by supporting young Rwandans to sustain meaningful income generation and to use formal financial services to expand their small- and medium-sized enterprises. Youth for Youth is a three-year project, privately funded by CRS, providing hybrid solutions in the form of digital and in-person support to help solve some of the most pressing issues faced by young entrepreneurs in Rwanda.
The project improves the lives and livelihoods of young adults in Rwanda by strengthening digital entrepreneurship and the enabling environment around young entrepreneurs, so they become more digitally literate and benefit fully from accessible and relevant business development and financial services.
