Strengthening Young Entrepreneurs in Rwanda

Solange Bayizere says she has always valued a good education. As a student growing up in a rural village in western Rwanda, she studied hard, passing her secondary school exams, allowing her to move on to university.  She looked forward to her future.  Unfortunately, Solange’s mother – a widow - could not afford the tuition fees. Disappointed but undeterred, Solange enrolled in a much cheaper technical school, where she studied hairdressing, tailoring, and handicrafts.  

Solange Bayizere, CEO of a local handicrafts store, poses in front of some local fabrics she sells at her shop in Rwanda.

Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS

She then started to dream of opening her own salon. But again, she faced the problem of money. She didn’t have access to the start-up capital needed to rent a shop and buy the equipment.  

“When I realized I couldn’t open a salon, I thought about handicrafts,” Solange says. “The raw materials are much cheaper, and they are available locally and you can sell locally and to tourists.” 

In 2018, she and two other young women she knew started working together to produce handmade crafts, jewelry, and clothing. The products sold well. A year later, when she entered Rwanda’s annual YouthConnekt entrepreneurial business competition, Solange was awarded $375 to further invest in her business.  

She bought three new sewing machines and started teaching other young women the skills she had learned. Solange continued to expand her business, buying more machines and training even more new apprentices.  

Solange Bayizere in front of her handicrafts shop.

Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS

But while things were going well, Solange says she often had trouble keeping track of expenses and earnings. She had no idea how to sell her goods outside of her immediate community. 

Then, in 2022, Solange became involved in Catholic Relief Services’ Gera Ku Ntego (Reach the Goal) project, which aims to help young entrepreneurs sustain meaningful income generation and use formal financial services to expand their small- and medium-size enterprises.  She attended various trainings on business planning and management. 

“The training we received is priceless,” Solange says.  “We never could have paid for it. For anyone who is focused, if they implement what they learned they will succeed. Training for youth is so powerful and positively impacts business so much.”  

CRS sponsored Solange’s trip to attend a YouthConnekt conference in Nairobi, where young entrepreneurs from the region met and exchanged ideas. 

“It opened my mind, Solange says. “I had no previous exposure to what other youth [in other countries] were doing.” 

Solange also took part in CRS’ Youth for Youth (Y4Y) project, which strengthens youth digital entrepreneurship. As part of the program, she has access to a mobile phone application, known as Kudibooks. Instead of using pen and paper, Kudibooks helps her to keep track of input costs and sales, and automatically calculate profit.  

Solange Bayizere uses a mobile phone application to track her sales and profits.

Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS

Today, at age 27, Solange is the founder and CEO of Ishema ry’Umuco Ltd (The Pride of the Culture) handicraft shop. She continues to run her apprenticeship program and is currently working on getting accreditation to turn it into an official training school.  

“So many girls from villages are poor,” she says. “They may or may not have ambitions, but they have so many opportunities. Often, being poor equates to early pregnancy. They drop out of school. They never find other work. They marry too early, illegally. And the marriages don’t work out. And once the marriage ends, they … have no skills to find work.”  

In the past five years, Solange has welcomed more than 300 young women facing vulnerable situations – many of them with children - into her apprenticeship school. While she says many tend to drop out because of other responsibilities, some make it. Solange offers paid work opportunities to those who succeed.  

“I try to help them psychologically and explain that learning handicrafts could be one way to gain a new life,” Solange says.  

This summer, after years of waiting and saving money, Solange finally started attending a university. She is studying medium enterprise business management, with the hopes of one day opening showrooms around the country and exporting her products internationally.  

“My message for other youth is that your dignity and your life are in your own hands,” Solange says. “You are the one to find your way, despite your background or your history; despite everything working against you. Despite any challenges faced, you are the ones to find and create opportunities for the future. And you deserve this. You deserve respect and success.” 

CRS Rwanda empowers Rwandan youth to thrive by enabling sustained meaningful income generation and to use formal financial services to expand their small- and medium-size enterprises. CRS implements Gera Ku Ntego (Reach the Goal), a CRS privately-funded project, which leverages existing key relationships with local sectoral stakeholders, such as the Government of Rwanda, the Church, and the private sector, who understand the severity of and seek to improve Rwanda’s youth unemployment problem, including the specific barrier of inaccessible formal finance. The Gera Ku Ntego project is implemented in eight districts of Rwanda and aims to reach 7,441 youth participants. The Youth for Youth (Y4Y) project improves the lives and livelihoods of young adults in Rwanda by strengthening youth digital entrepreneurship and the enabling environment around youth entrepreneurship. Y4Y’s project strategy provides hybrid solutions in the form of digital and in-person support to help solve some of the most pressing problems faced by youth entrepreneurs in rural Rwanda. 

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