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FinTecHub and Cenfri are pleased to announce the signing of their new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This MoU underlines the shared interest of FinTecHub and Cenfri in developing and strengthening African fintech, and Rwandan fintech in particular. FinTecHub is Rwanda’s dedicated virtual accelerator that supports selected Rwandan fintech start-ups to scale by addressing their needs for skills, partnerships, access to capital and markets, and navigating the regulatory environment. FinTecHub is an initiative by UNCDF, the ICT Chamber, Kigali Innovation City, the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The initiative is as a direct response to address the challenges and strengthen the enablers identified in UNCDF’s research on the Rwandan fintech landscape. Touted as “the test kitchen for African tech start-ups”, Rwanda benefits from a few strong government policies that favour fintech development, such as a commitment to a cashless society, a visa policy that is friendly to international students and start-ups, and a regulatory sandbox focusing on fintech. On the other hand, some of the challenges in Rwanda are a lack of seed- and early-stage funding, a lack of entrepreneurial (soft) skills, and the small size of the market. FinTecHub responds to the enablers and barriers identified by UNCDF across four ecosystem components: Talent, Demand, Capital, and Policy and Regulation. FinTecHub accepted its first cohort in August 2020 and intends to leverage the BFA Catalyst Fund tools to provide start-ups with specialised accelerator support. FinTecHub will further contribute to the development of the fintech ecosystem by becoming a key convening and information point for all stakeholders to support the growing fintech community  – going beyond start-ups to include regulators, traditional financial service providers, investors, academia and other interested parties. Roselyne Uwamahoro, UNCDF Country Lead, comments: “The UNCDF strategy aims to promote digital economies that leave no one behind. We support the development and financing of digital economies to significantly reduce the digital divide and bring countries to a stage where digital rails (policy, mobile and payment infrastructure) are strong enough to enable innovation and skills development. We partner with private and public stakeholders to unlock market constraints and leverage innovation and technology to build inclusive digital economies that serve the sustainable development goals.  FinTecHub embodies the partnership approach to catalyse the ecosystem. We are excited to be one of the inaugural partners and are committed to leverage our unique, blended finance toolkit to support the fintech ecosystem.” Tesi Rusagara, Managing Director of Kigali Innovation City, comments: “The Kigali Innovation City’s mandate is to nurture Rwanda’s innovation ecosystem by convening key actors locally and globally. FinTecHub is one of many efforts to strengthen synergies between industry, research, academia, and entrepreneurship. We are committed to creating an enabling environment in Rwanda for scalable innovation and we are excited to partner with Cenfri given their thought leadership on innovation ecosystems and financial inclusion.” Doubell Chamberlain, Managing Director of Cenfri, comments: “We are very excited about the opportunity to provide direct and practical support to the FinTecHub. At Cenfri, we believe innovation ecosystems fulfil a core role in enabling a digital Africa in which all individuals can flourish. It is  important to understand the enablers and inhibitors of such innovation ecosystems, and FinTecHub is founded on this understanding. We have a long history with many of the partners involved in this collaborative initiative and look forward to deepening our working relationship with this initiative.” Cenfri endeavours to collaborate with FinTecHub by: Providing training and technical assistance to the fintech cohorts Sharing knowledge (through documents and virtual engagements) on topics relevant to the Rwanda fintech ecosystem Facilitating conversations with a wide variety of stakeholders to catalyse action for impact in the Rwanda fintech ecosystem This commitment from the various local stakeholders that are involved, and FinTecHub’s strong underpinning in research on the barriers to the ecosystem, will enable FinTecHub and Cenfri to develop richer insights and expand the reach of their impactful work across the ecosystem. It builds on Cenfri’s existing commitments to supporting innovation ecosystems, through our ecosystem mapping efforts, the DataHack4FI, and our other partnerships with the likes of the Africa Fintech Network and Findexable

The African Management Institute (AMI) and the Rwanda ICT Chamber have signed a one-year agreement to provide business training to entrepreneurs in the ICT sector to reinforce their skills and boost women’s participation in the sector. The partnership aims to reach more than 2,000 i-workers (i.e. internet workers who include digital services agents, freelancers, digital ambassadors and gig/platform workers). This is geared to help small businesses tackle the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and equip them with the skills, tools and strategies to manage risk and identify new opportunities for growth. The African Management Institute will offer its sponsored virtual Business Survival Bootcamp in English and Kinyarwanda to tech entrepreneurs across the country and enable them to access AMI’s online learning platform. Through the programme, entrepreneurs learn about risk assessment, scenario planning, cash flow forecasting and other skills to support their business to grow and thrive. To date, 114 entrepreneurs have already benefited from AMI’s sponsored programme in partnership with the ICT Chamber and completed AMI’s Business Survival Bootcamp programme. Members of the ICT Chamber are encouraged to apply directly through bit.ly/AMI-ICT. Yvette Uwimpaye, founder of the online store Murukali Market Smart, is looking forward to the upcoming training: “The pandemic affected my business both positively and negatively. We had more customers ordering online, however they were buying fresh products such as perishable food. It was hard to keep up with the demand due to movement restrictions. This impacted our operations and caused us to lose customers and revenue. I’m excited to take part in the Business Survival Bootcamp because I want to recover losses and make my e-commerce business more profitable,” she said. AMI Country Director, Malik Shaffy, commented: “This partnership is unique because it will also increase the number of women thriving in Rwanda’s digital economy. As we boost women’s participation in our programmes, I encourage all tech entrepreneurs to visit our website and apply for the Business Survival Bootcamp to gain the skills and network that will help your business to grow.” Rwanda ICT Chamber CEO, Alex Ntare, shared how the sector will benefit from the partnership: “ Over the years we have seen a growing number of  women owned or co-founded technology and ICT enabled businesses,  this partnership with AMI has already raised interest among our members especially those participating in the IHUZO digital commerce project, the content in the programmes is very relevant to all sizes of businesses especially those affected by COVID-19 and who want to digitalize”

AOS Ltd, a Rwandan-based ICT service provider and operator of the National Data Centre, has entered partnership with Rwanda ICT Chamber to support local startups by offering affordable hosting services on web and mail, as well as cloud computing. AOS has the best data centre in the region and IT solutions that improve efficiency of service delivery across all the productive sectors in Rwanda. These leading-edge IT solutions are further delivered with unique benefits and enhanced business value realisation to its primary clients and end users, according to the organisation. With this partnership, startups that will be channeled through ICT Chamber, will be able to enjoy discounted services where web and mail hosting service’s lowest package starts from Rwf6,035 per year and cloud computing service package is available at Rwf13,138 per month. “AOS is committed to contributing towards ICT development in Rwanda particularly in data center services, IT solutions and Systems integration. “Owing it to this, these hosting opportunities will help startups and small enterprises to build their brand through online presence and increase potential for growth at a reduced cost of operation,” said Seong W. Kim, CEO of AOS Ltd. The agreement with ICT chamber will run for five years (until 2027), and this specific initiative is valid until December 2023 to those who sign up for the services within the month of September and October, 2022. According to Kim, AOS has a team of technical and sales specialists who provide excellent services and 24/7 online support to customers to ensure that a secure, reliable, and scalable environment of the hosted data is delivered. He added: “When data is locally hosted, it plays a part in the country’s development by enrolling the local workforce and encouraging the use of homegrown developed IT solutions.” Alex Ntale, CEO of Rwanda ICT chamber said that the organization is excited to join hands with AOS Ltd to help startups get some of the critical services they need in business at an affordable price. “As a member-based organisation, we are keen to help our members get the tools and opportunities they need to grow by setting up a business friendly environment,” he continued. “As we sign this agreement, we are thankful to AOS Ltd for supporting the startup ecosystem in Rwanda through ICT Chamber by providing discounted packages. We believe that this partnership will help a lot in terms of facilitating startups to comply with data localization law.” The partnership is expected to help both existing and new startups and to ensure great collaboration between AOS Ltd and Rwanda ICT Chamber in planning and organizing events that promote fast growing ICT access for businesses in Rwanda. Startups can choose their suitable package here. In April 2015, The Global Information Technology Report released in Geneva, Switzerland ranked Rwanda first globally for Government success in ICT promotion to drive social and economic transformation. According to the report by World Economic Forum (WEF) Rwanda scored 6.2 points out of 7.

Bpifrance and Rwanda ICT Chamber have signed an agreement to accelerate the connection between innovative Rwandan companies and the French and European investors and businesses, through the EuroQuity digital platform. Bpifrance serves to avail finance for companies – at every stage of their development – with credit, guarantees and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation and international projects. This cooperation agreement was signed by Pascal Lagarde, Executive Director in charge of International Affairs, Strategy, Development and Research at Bpifrance and Alex Ntale, Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda ICT Chamber on the sidelines of a visit by a French delegation in the country. Bpifrance and Rwanda ICT Chamber agreed to initiate their collaboration through a program of joint activities including the creation of a Rwanda ICT Chamber community to bring together the Rwandan ecosystem (entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, accelerators, incubators) and enhance the link between international investors and companies in order to foster access funding and business opportunities. The partnership also seek to facilitate the development of labels to promote Rwanda ICT Chamber’s acceleration programs and partners. Companies and partners’ companies will benefit from labels that will help them gain exposure among investors and future partners on the platform. From the partnership, E-pitch sessions and sector-specific webinars will be co-organized to animate the community, promote Rwandan companies and connect them with international investors and business partners. The pact also provides for synergies with third party African and European projects will be explored to unlock the full potential of this collaboration and best leverage investment and business opportunities. Alex Ntale, the Chief Executive Officer of the ICT Chamber, said: “As Rwanda ICT Chamber aims at creating high caliber sources of business opportunities in the ICT sector, this cooperation with Bpifrance is a gateway to great development collaborations between Rwandan and European ICT ecosystems.” Pascal Lagarde, Executive director in charge of international affairs at Bpifrance said:  “We are pleased to sign this agreement with the ICT Chamber of Rwanda, backed by EuroQuity, as we know this agreement can lead to promising business opportunities and investment proposals. We are eager to develop strong connections and activities and hope that the development of our relations will bring fruitful and effective collaborations for companies, investors and stakeholders on both sides.”