Rwandan Youth Drive Agricultural Innovation at Tech Bootcamp
Earlier this year, N-Frnds launched the Youth Entrepreneurship Fellowship (YEF) in Nyagatare at University of Rwanda-Nyagatare, through the Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth (PSDAG) project funded by USAID. The Fellowship equips 30 youths with skills of business development, entrepreneurial problem solving, and a mastery of N-Frnds mAgri platform to drive technology adoption among farmers, agribusinesses and rural customers.
In the welcoming remarks of the bootcamp held of January 25, 2018, Gilbert Rutayisre, Director of Agriculture, Animal and Natural Resources inspired the youth and thanked N-Frnds for the initiative, referring to N-Frnds as their “Nyagatare Friends”.
“The government has lots of development programs in this region, like the ongoing Industrial Park development. We want you to use the skills you are taught and join us in making Nyagatare one of the developed cities of Rwanda,” Gilbert Rutayisire said to the fellows.
The selection of the 30 youths was a rigorous process, with over 200 applicants applying, mostly university graduates residing in Nyagatare district. N-Frnds chose the top 30 applicants who demonstrated passion for entrepreneurship and technology.
“The YEF program is designed to give young people without previous exposure to entrepreneurship or technology the ability to gain practical training and skills that they can take with them after the fellowship,” said Caylee Talpert, Vice President of Business Development at N-Frnds.
The YEF program is composed of three main activities, which equip the fellows with the much-needed skills of identifying a problem, developing a business to solve the problem, and testing the business in the real world.
Bootcamps: Monthly bootcamps, ranging from one to three days, that give 30 fellows theoretical lectures about business development, value proposition, customer segmentation and critical problem solving skills.
Mentorship: N-Frnds matches mentors with a group of fellows. The mentors serve as local expert helping fellows solve their selected business problems. Mentors regularly met with the fellows throughout the program.
Hands-On Experience: Focused on real world problem solving activities, the fellows visit the field to meet customers, create useful value propositions, and explain how the N-Frnds mAgri platform can give farmers access to information and resources.
“Our wish is to nurture a breed of young entrepreneurs who will try hundreds of businesses, such that ultimately, on average, each fellow will have reduced the 90% startup failure rate to 0%,” explained Jovani Ntabgoba, the Director of Business Development and Marketing at N-Frnds.
Agricultural business problems that the fellows are currently tackling range from linking farmers and buyers, post-harvest processing, access to finance to digitization of farmer cooperatives activities.
“I always wondered why there is no packed watermelon juice on the Rwandan market. Through this Fellowship, I have been able to make the watermelon juice and test it, so that in few months to come, I can test it on a larger market”, said Jeanne, a fellow.
N-Frnds has held the Youth Entrepreneurship Fellowship Program in Kigali and Rubavu. YEF is currently being held in Nyagatare and will be running in Musanze this March. The program has impacted over 100 youths in Rwanda.
Written by Jovani Ntabgoba, the Director of Business Development and Marketing at N-Frnds
