Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Inside
THIS REPORT
pg4
pg25
FOREWORDS
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7
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9
11
12 DREAM
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13
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15
16 DESIGN
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20
21
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DEDICATE
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41 LESSON LEARNED
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Conclusion
Partners
Trustees &
Country Director
FOREWORDS
Alexander Handy
Co-founder and Trustee
2013 has been a remarkable year for AIP. Our
programme has continued to grow reaching over
700 students resulting in a 100% increase in business
plan competition entrants. The quality and potential
of this years winners continues to impress with ideas
ranging from biogas production to statistics training
for students. Excitingly, the future looks even more
promising. 2013 was the first year that we have
added full-time hires to the team both in Rwanda
and the UK and their impact continues to be seen
across the organization. With plans to expand in
Rwanda and East Africa, 2014 promises to be our
highest impact year to date.
Julia Fan Li
Co-founder and Trustee
2013 has been a brilliant year for the African
Innovation Prize! We welcomed our first Rwandan
Country Director Herve onboard and the AIP
community presence has expanded throughout
Rwanda.
We have been thrilled with the
development of the Entrepreneurship Clubs at KIST,
NUR and SFB with high levels of student engagement
and excellent AIP Student Ambassadors. Following
Herves leadership and work of committed AIP
Student Ambassadors, the 2013 edition of Enterprise
Rwanda week was excellent, culminating in the
seed funding of three new student-led businesses in
renewable energy, education and innovative uses
of avocado oils. 2013 also marked the first edition
of Enterprise Sierra Leone and we seek to support
the youth entrepreneurship community and alumni
from the University of Sierra Leone. We head into
2014 with enthusiasm and a view to consolidate our
Rwandan business plan competition, training and
mentorship and we hope you will enjoy us on this
exciting journey.
Sarah Teacher
Co-founder and Trustee
2013 has been another super year for AIP. Our key
theme was to consolidate for growth, and that is
exactly what we have done. Our funders De La Rue
and the Segal Family Foundation have ensured that
we could develop the core strength to do our work,
supporting us to develop our internal capacities as
well as running an enhanced training programme,
and growing the volume and quality of entries to
the competition. Through their visionary investment,
more and more students are benefiting from our
entrepreneurship work. These strengthened core
operations means that 2014 is set to be a time of
enormous excitement for the team: We have a
wonderful presence in Rwanda, and are now in a
position to register as international NGO in Rwanda,
and explore East African growth. We are privileged
to have a body of advisors, volunteers, partner
organizations and funders that are taking this
journey with us. Thank you all so much!
Herve Kubwimana
Rwanda Country Director
It is my great pleasure to report to you on a year
that has been remarkable and rewarding. We had
a great opportunity of helping students to improve
their business ideas. As a result, we saw students
teaming up with their entrepreneurial peers from
different universities to achieve more. Along with the
inspiring team of student ambassadors, I was very
proud to organize Enterprise Rwanda 2013 where
for one week, young innovators benefited from the
expertise and experience of previous generations
while bringing their own pioneering ideas to fruition.
This synergy across generations is something that
continues to motivate us to grow and reach as
many students as possible in the upcoming year.
Roland Ruhumuriza
Rwanda Advisor and Trustee
AIP 2013
IN NUMBERS
RWANDA
SIERRA LEONE
84 Business Plan
21 Business Plan
05 Business Ideas
Entries
Entries
578 Students
Entries
Entries
150 Students
Trained
Trained
20 Volunteers
07 Volunteers
Engaged
Engaged
13 Judges
04 Judges
Engaged
Engaged
07 Keynote Speakers
Engaged
04 Supported
Entrepreneuship Clubs
09 Keynote Speakers
Engaged
N/A Supported
Entrepreneuship Clubs
03 Universities
01 University
03 Seed Fund
01 Seed Fund
Businesses
01 Business Service
Provider
Business
7
The success of this year lies in the contribution of
various individuals across continents, universities,
government institutions, private companies, and
business leaders. Their support has been crucial to
AIPs Business Plan Competition and the African
Innovation Prizes Program in general.
We couldnt
have done it
without you
Our Background
The African Innovation Prize is a UK based nonprofit organization founded by three Cambridge
University Graduates to spur student innovation
and entrepreneurship in Africa, through
university based business planning competitions.
AIP encourages Rwandan university students to
DREAM, DESIGN, and DEDICATE themselves to
their business ideas.
Vision
African universities
with vibrant
entrepreneurship culture.
Mission
population.
The Need
As highlighted in the Economic Development &
Poverty Reduction Strategy 2 (EDPRS 2) program, in
2011 Rwandas formal private sector employed only
4% of the countrys labor force, and only 0.5% of
firms had more than 30 employees. The small size of
Rwandas
private sector is a major limiting factor to future
prospects for economic growth and economic
transformation. The private sector needs to undergo
significant structural transformation to be able to
become the main driver of economic growth. With
a number of university graduates every year, the
majority aspiring to public sector jobs, AIP believes
that entrepreneurship and access to finance should
Our Sponsors
At AIP, we see significant value in supporting university entrepreneurship, and are inspired by the novel ideas
and opportunities that students can commercialize. We like to explore our own
networks for organizations that both innovate in their own practice, and support
others to do the same.
De La Rue
No organization exemplifies these characteristics more than our lead funder
De La Rue an organization that has managed to sustain its technological lead in
business for almost 200 years, and helps us support young business people in both
Rwanda and Sierra Leone. The African Innovation Prize team, talked to De La Rue
Key Accounts Director, Tony Mullen, to understand what we and our students can
learn from the companys practice.
10
De La Rue is also involved in the production of
national currencies, the manufacture of cash
processing machines and revenue protection and
product authentication systems, including tax stamps
and track and trace technology.
11
Segal Family Foundation
The Segal Family Foundation is one of our
generous funders in our work of inspiring students in
entrepreneurship. We spoke with Andy Bryant, the
Executive Director of the Segal Family Foundation. He
oversees the foundations team and implements its
vision.
What is the mission of the Segal Family Foundation,
particularly in sub-Saharan Africa?
SFFs mission is to partner with outstanding individuals
and organizations that improve the well-being of
communities in Sub Saharan Africa.
What is your long term perspective on the future of
entrepreneurship in Africa?
There is a growing ecosystem of support for African
entrepreneurs. The impetus has often come from
abroad but there is increasing African ownership
of these incubators, ideas, competitions, & even
funding. The journey taken by AIP in bringing on
strong local leadership reflects this evolution.
What is the SFFs approach in supporting
entrepreneurship in Africa?
We are interested to find the minimum viable
package of support services that will empower
African entrepreneurs to build successful enterprises
(both for-profit & non-profit).
There are a lot of well-intended capacity building
services that are not necessarily worth the opportunity
cost of participation by entrepreneurs. We need to
identify what services are a net positive for them &
eliminate others that are superfluous.
What advice do you have for aspiring student
entrepreneurs in Africa?
The most important components of a business plan
are the Today & the Five Years from Now. How will
you sell your first fifty units right now & do you have
a product or service that is valuable enough to your
consumers that you can sell fifty thousand of them in
five years? Everything in between is fiction.
www.africaninnovationprize.org
Dream
Design Dedicate
DREAM
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Dream
www.africaninnov ationprize.or g
Design Dedicate
This training marked the official launch of AIPs Phase I Business Idea Challenge and it took place at the three
different universities, KIST, NUR and SFB on March 6th, March 9th and March 12th respectively. The trainings
were well attended by the members of the entrepreneurship clubs especially at NUR, where we saw an
incredible number of 105 attendees. KIST and SFB entrepreneurship clubs registered a turnout of 39 and 54
attendees respectively.
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Dream
Design Dedicate
YEAR
KIST
NUR
SFB
TOTAL
2010
36
n/a
n/a
36
2011
18
n/a
n/a
18
2012
25
33
16
74
2013
40
135
41
216
The improvement in entries has primarily been driven by increased presence and activity on the ground. The
implementation of a full time secretariat supported by engaged student ambassadors has been central to
this effort.
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Dream
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Design Dedicate
Challenges do, however, remain. Students continue to find the ISTART platform difficult to use. Previously,
students submitted business ideas by sending an attachment to AIPs email address. We noticed that some
students continued using this way, but remedial action was taken by giving them feedback and pointing
them in the right direction. Three different workshops on the use of the istart platform to submit business ideas
were organized at the universities. Now students are getting more and more familiar with the use of istart and
the student ambassadors are always there to help the students in their respective universities. During this same
period, judges for the competition were recruited to assess the business ideas. In total the business ideas have
been assessed by 13 judges, 4 international and 9 from the local enterprise community. The judging period
took place from April 1st to April 21st and each business idea has been reviewed by 2 judges separately to
allow the process to be as fair as possible.
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Dream
Design
DESIGN
Dedicate
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Dream
Design
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Dedicate
Phase 2 entries
Entries
YEAR
KIST
NUR
SFB
TOTAL
2010
25
n/a
n/a
25
2011
26
n/a
n/a
26
2012
16
10
35
2013
28
35
21
84
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Dream
Design
Dedicate
All the entries were submitted exclusively online using the ISTART platform. Every university had a personalized
platform as follows:
KIST: http://africaninnovationprize2013kist.istart.org/
NUR: http://africaninnovationprize2013nur.istart.org/
SFB: http://africaninnovationprize2013sfb.istart.org/
All the personalized platforms had forms where students had to fill in details of their business plans. This was
done in order to harmonize the submission process as well as making sure the entries were brief and concise.
Business Name
Business Name
Name of the business
Describe how your business will be making money, What are your
products and what value they create to the customer, Who will be
your clients and how many of them are you targeting, who are your
competitors and what is your competitive advantage, etc
Financial Considerations
(200 words)
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Dream
Design
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Dedicate
Budgeting
Balance Sheet
Income Statement
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Dream
Design
Dedicate
Judging
The judging of the Phase 2 took place from June 16th July 10th. 9 judges participated in the 2nd phase of the
competition, 3 judges per university. Every business plan was assessed by 3 separate judges to ensure 100%
fairness of the competition. The judges followed the following judging criteria:
Question
Ranks
0 None
1 Vague unsubstantiated assertions about market size and growth rate.
2 Adequate description of market, size and growth rate with limited factual support
3 Thorough fact-based description of market, size and growth rate based on direct
experience
0 None
1 Poor description of existing competitors. No obvious reason for continued growth.
Not sustainable
2 coverage of existing competitors, some issues on competitive edge, defensibility/
sustainability.
3 Existing competitors described. Clear competitive advantage for the proposed
team. Defensible
0 None
1 Unclear how product will work or what value it gives customer.
2 Convincing story on how product will work but limited idea of future generations.
3 Convincing story of how the product will work and capability of diversifying into
new areas.
0 None
1 Rambling structure, missing information, typographical errors.
2 Clear and does not include irrelevant material.
3 Well-organized. No irrelevant sections, no careless errors, all superlatives are
supported.
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Dream
Design
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Dedicate
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www.africaninnov ationprize.or g
Dream
What would be your message to other young
entrepreneurs out there?
If you are thinking of doing something great, you are
in the right way. So, just be you and move ahead.
The world will be bettered by our ideas and we have
to be the ambassadors of the change. We have to
shape our future because now is the right time to do
it.
Design
Dedicate
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Dream
Design
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Dedicate
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Dream
Design
Dedicate
Sierra Leone
Sunah Keili, Mabel Fatu
Mabel Fatu will be a bag assembling outfit that
utilizes raffia, decorative canes and African fabric
stems and the decorative arts to create beautiful
accessories. Design will focus on traditional African
fabric and kontri cloth which may be colored,
tie-dyed, hand painted or hand finished giving a
unique fusion of color coordination to create in
style products.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
www.africaninnovationprize.org
DEDICATE
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Dream Design
Dedicate
The main theme of this years edition was DEDICATE. Students were given the opportunity to dedicate
themselves on their business plans and network with their entrepreneurial peers. Each day, local business
leaders came to share their experiences and provide to students with advice and frameworks to consider
for each key phase of starting a business.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
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Dream Design
Dedicate
Bosco RUSAGARA is a 3rd year student in the Faculty of Economics and Management at the National
University of Rwanda. He is planning to start his business in Green and Service sector.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
www.africaninnovationprize.org
Fabrice NIYIBIZI a 3rd year student at Kigali Health Institute (KHI) in the department of dentistry and planning
to start a business in the field of Dentistry- Iwacu Dental Clinic!
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Dream Design
Dedicate
Elie NZAYISENGA, is graduating in Applied Statistics at National University of Rwanda. Winner of AIP 2013
Challenge and Start-up entrepreneur in statistical software training & management consultancy.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
www.africaninnovationprize.org
Domitille AKEZA is currently a student in Bio-medical Laboratory Sciences in the Faculty of Allied Health
Sciences at the Kigali Health Institute.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
Day 5: Pitching
by David KARURANGA MWIZERWA
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Dream Design
Dedicate
www.africaninnovationprize.org
David KARURANGA MWIZERWA is a 3rd year student in Monetary Economics at the National University of
Rwanda. He is the 2012 AIP Business Plan Competition winner at NUR.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
Most of the students suggested that we increase the time for the speakers to allow them to ask more
questions and have longer interactions with the speakers. This is true because most of the keynote speeches
lasted for an average of 55 minutes followed by 15 minutes questions & answers sessions. This was done
to make sure that we had at least two different speakers as well as a group session at the end of the day.
The time for group sessions proved also to be very limited. An hour was allocated to the groups interactive
sessions at the end of the keynote speeches during the last hour of the daily program. This proved to be
very short. Students in their comments suggested putting group sessions in the middle of the program after
each session. This would help them reflecting on the session and concealing it with their own experiences.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
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A certain number students also suggested that we should bring more speakers during Enterprise Rwanda.
These students in their comments also suggested that AIP should think of a way of running the sessions
the whole working day and provide lunch to the attendees to make an optimal use of the week. Some
students said that having lunch and spending a whole day with their peers would be a great opportunity
to network with their peers
We were thrilled to see that attendees advocated for other students who were not able to attend the
conference. They suggested to us to allow other students from both public and private higher learning
institutions in Rwanda to participate in AIP events. Managing logistics and expectations is the main reason
to limit the number of the students that can be allowed to the conference.
Students also requested that AIP should at least provide some transportation fees to the attendees to allow
them to be on time and increase the number of turn up. The venue of the conference was at KIST which
can be considered as the centre and most convenient venue for the majority of the students. Unfortunately
providing transportation fees as a way of motivating students proves to be an inefficient strategy. Students
need to take ownership of the conferences. However, AIP is exploring a way of organizing the next edition
of Enterprise Rwanda on two different venues to be as close to the student as possible.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
As shown in the figures above, students learnt a lot from the keynote speakers invited during the workshop.
With the guest speakers sharing their experiences on various business skills and concepts as human resource
management, business financial management, teamwork, etc. students improved their skills consistently as
shows the trend going from very poor skills to excellent skills.
We also asked students to tell us more about their overall experience of the whole week and to rate it.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
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To round-up the end of the first post-pilot year of running the African Innovation Prize (AIP) , Enterprise Sierra
Leone 2013 took place from the 2nd 6th of September at the Sierra Leone Library Board. The week of
interactive training and workshops drew about 40 budding student entrepreneurs daily from Freetown. This
inaugural week of training in Sierra Leone followed the structure, format and contents of Enterprise Rwanda;
itself a workshop with three years track record.
Below students share their experience of Enterprise Sierra Leone, either of individual sessions, or the entire
week itself.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
Day 1
I am thinking of starting my own business upon
graduation from University, and Enterprise Sierra
Leone 2013 helped me greatly with the knowledge
on how I could fulfil my dream in starting my own
business with little or no capital.
The workshop was a wow from start to finish,
especially with the presence of young successful
local business enterprise men and women who spoke
on different topics. They covered issues including how
they started to get to where they are which helped
me greatly to get an insight into the opportunities
and constraints of starting and running a business.
Successful entrepreneurs who constituted speakers
for example Daniel Osei-Antwi, Managing Director
of Splash awakened the Entrepreneur in me on the
first day, the young Harvard Masters holder in Business
Administration did not only mesmerise me with his
ideas and achievement but also with his young age.
This was backed up by the great presentations from
the rest of the speakers.
Studying for a Bachelor of Arts Degree with very little
business background I can today boast of knowledge
in understanding entrepreneurship,
Hassan Sannoh is a Final Year student at the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. He is planning to
start his own business in Cocoa Production upon graduation.
I was attracted to Enterprise Sierra Leone to help me to
be creative and innovative in going into the business
and to build my business plan to be an entrepreneur.
The session on the first day was about awakening the
entrepreneur in you and the speaker, Daniel OseiAntwi, taught us that inspiration without perspiration
is hallucination. The experience was relevant to me
because it helps me to become a job creator. An
example being Bill Gates, Brian Scudamore, Shane
Pannell etc. and how to build up my business plan as
an entrepreneur.
I learnt to:
Make meaning- build up your desire to make
a difference in the world.
Make a mantra- think big and work towards it.
Make the move- surround yourself with
people who will inspire you to act.
Make money- make sure you have a business
model and how you are going to make them transfer
that money into your pocket.
What interested me is to be an Entrepreneur and the
most important thing I learnt is to be become a job
creator and to improve my idea. I learnt that I need
to create winning mentality that will help me become
successful.
Amadu Bangura is in his 2nd year of a Bsc. Business Administration at IPAM, USL. He is planning on starting
business in Palm oil.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
www.africaninnovationprize.org
Day 2
I was attracted to ESL by the advertisement and
the way it was made. The most catching word was
entrepreneurship. On this note, I applied because I
want to have more knowledge on entrepreneurship.
The Tuesday session was very exciting to me because
it was about how to generate ideas for the success
of business and how to start a business without a
capital.I enjoyed the two presentations made by
both Fatou Wurie of MamaYa Campaign and William
Conteh of Capitalism Without Capital as I was able
to learn a lot from them. The experience gathered
would serve as a kind of motivation and guide to
start up my own business. From the session, the thing
that interested me most was the experience gained
about strategic branding and steps involved in it.Amongst the things I learnt, the most important thing was
that in a business,one does not necessarily need to start big, you start small and grow big. As a result of this
session, I can endeavour to start my business irrespective of the size of my capital and I will never give up.
Joseph Koroma is a final year student at FBC, USL. He wants to start a business in Information and Communication
Technology (ICT).
Day 3 & 4
First of all, I would like to say a thanks to the African
Innovation Prize for giving us the opportunity as
University Students in Sierra Leone to be able to be
part of the training they provided in order to help us
widen out brains and encouraging us not to be afraid
of the dreams we have in making a difference in the
lives of our fellow Sierra Leoneans and even beyond.
The 3rd day of the training was also an awesome
one. Two presenters with different topics both aimed
to inspire us as students not to be afraid to choose
the path of entrepreneurship. Presenter Evelyn Lewis,
CEO of SBTS Group and TrainingSol and Claudette
Ahiabor, of SMILE enterprise. Claudette is currently
a mentor to me with my business ideas and she is a
great supporter of young entrepreneurs, it was great
to see her inspiring others.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
Zainab Nasiru, a third year student in Business Administration, IPAM, USL. She is planning to do a business.
Zainab also volunteered during the week of training and her help was invaluable!
Day 5
On Day 5, after an inspiring presentation on business
pitches by Leah Mansaray from AFFORD, which
emphasised the need for students to use simple,
approachable language to communicate their
ideas and how to sell them quickly. The students
then practiced this in groups on the ideas they had
been working on throughout the week. Although the
session had to be cut short for the prize giving, it was
great opportunity for the students to give feedback
to each other and highlighted the importance of
establishing entrepreneurship clubs and learning
from and giving feedback to peers. The feedback
from the students is resoundingly positive and overall
the main of inspiring and encouraging the students
has been achieved. Students mention how they
feel encouraged to pursue their ideas, think big,
create employment and make a difference in their
community. One student mentiond that AIP should:
Always continue using speakers who have made
positive changes in entrepreneurship in SL for students
to see the reality of entrepreneurship.
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Dream Design
Dedicate
LESSON
LEARNED
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Dream Design
Dedicate
Planning our activities and events calendar to align with
the academic year is of paramount importance. In 2013, we
started with an introductory workshop in January and phase 1
in March while the academic year had started in September. This deprived us of a precious time to start
engaging the students way ahead of the competition and running other activities.
This same lack of alignment with the Rwandan academic year also led to average success in engaging
university staff in charge of entrepreneurship. With the beginning of the introductory workshops in March
we made sure to correct this.
The adoption of an online platform in submitting the business ideas and business plans caused a few
challenges to the students who had previously submitted their ideas/business plans as an email
attachment. We recognized thatwhile iStart was organizationally beneficial to AIP as it provided one
single platform for all competition-related mattersstudents would need to be better informed in order for
everyone involved to reap its benefits. Our response to this issue was to organize campus-based training
sessions for students. They were then able to use the platform to engage effectively in all stages of the
competitionfrom the call for entries in Phase 1 to the final judging round of Phase 2, providing them with
more functionality and taking up less of their valuable time.
Students have repeatedly requested that we open the competition to all higher learning institutions in
Kigalipublic as well as private. As we currently work with the main public universities, students from other
universities had let us know that they felt left out. While we are aware of this challenge and would like to
make our training and competition accessible to as many students as possible, we provide a full package
within our budget and are not able to include all the universities. We are, however, proud to be reaching
over 20,000 students within our current partner institutions.
Conclusion
As we gear up for 2014, we can look back and acknowledge that 2013 has been a fruitful year for our
organization but, most importantly, for the students we have impacted. Our presence within the universities
has never been as visible as it is now and for that we thank all the students, faculty members, business leaders,
donors and everyone else who has supported us throughout the year. As 2013 draws to a close, we are
excited to see that this years grand prize winners are already far advanced with their business plans and are
enjoying the support of our dear partners at Inkomoko.
We are looking ahead to 2014 with enthusiasm and a view to consolidating our program, engaging an
increasing number of strategic partners and making sure that our hearts and minds are fully prepared to
effectively support ever more university students in dreaming, designing and dedicating themselves to their
business ideas.
University Supporters
Business Supporters
Entrepreneurship Clubs