Strengthening Rwanda’s Young Entrepreneurs
The sun is setting in southern Rwanda as 29-year-old Jeannette sells beverages at her store in Rwabayanga village. Every sale she makes gets recorded on KudiBooks—an app that she uses on her phone.
A year ago, Jeannette stopped attending college for health reasons. As a mother of two boys, she hoped that starting her own business would be a manageable solution to generating income. But with limited resources to support her business, Jeanette struggled. At one point, she took out a loan, but the pressure to repay it was too much and she nearly defaulted.
Jeannette Uwamahoro, a participant in the CRS Youth for Youth project stands in her beverage boutique store in southern Rwanda.
Photo by Lina Carene Ishimwe/CRS
“My business almost failed,” Jeannette says.
A few months later, Jeannette was selected and registered among the participants of the Catholic Relief Services Youth for Youth project, which works to strengthen digital entrepreneurship skills and provide digital and in-person support to help solve the most pressing problems faced by young entrepreneurs in rural Rwanda. The project serves young people from 18 to 30 years old.
Jeannette received training in business management, digital bookkeeping, digital marketing and employee management. She also learned how to use KudiBooks, a cloud-based business accounting and management platform developed by participants from CRS Youth for Youth project. The app helps Jeannette input and track her expenses and profits and generates daily sales reports.
Over time, Jeanette started to make a profit. She diversified her products and doubled her beverage inventory. She then opened two additional shops and is now earns a monthly net profit of $816. Jeannette is nearly finished repaying her loan. She dreams of soon becoming the main distributor of local beverages in her district.
“The Youth for Youth project has helped me to use digital applications to manage my business,” Jeannette says. “Today, I am able to use KudiBooks to record transactions and oversee my business. Thanks to the project, I am now making a profit, and my business is growing well.”
In Rwanda 26.6% of the population is between 15 and 30 years old. Unemployment and sustainable livelihoods remain key challenges for young men and women, including youth entrepreneurs, particularly in rural areas. The Youth for Youth project supports young entrepreneurs so they can become more digitally literate and benefit fully from accessible and relevant business development and financial services.
CRS Rwanda aims to empower Rwandan youth to thrive by supporting them in sustaining 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 digital and in-person support to help solve some of the most pressing issues faced by youth 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.
