The Private Sector Federation (PSF) last week concluded its annual Business Plan Competition. 30 contestants were rewarded. This was the third edition of the BPC, which started in 2005. The awards ceremony also signaled the launch of the fourth competition.

The BPC was set up in reply to one of the major hurdles for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which is the difficulty to access finance. It aims at promoting entrepreneurship and helping professionalize the sector by facilitating the access to finance as well as supporting SMEs.

The program focuses on young and start-up entrepreneurs with innovative and profitable business ideas, as well as existing businesses, and helps them in preparing viable business plans and projects that can attract external financing.

"Since the start of BPC, there has been a positive impact, such as growth in the number of businesses set up as well as creation of employment," said Emmanuel Hategeka, the secretary general of PSF.

For instance, BPC has resulted in jobs for an estimated 3,000 women at Gahaya links, a benefactor of the BPC program. Other businesses have also managed to employ more than 500 people, either on temporary or permanent basis.

Since the inception of the competition, some 50 companies have benefited from the program. Yet Emmanuel Hategeka feels more has to be done so that more new companies can benefit. "We are targeting about 100 companies by next year," he said.

The winners of the BPC competition are given access to guarantee funds which amount to Frw 10 million from the Rwanda Development Bank, which charges reasonable interest rates for its long-term loans. The winners are further given technical assistance in order to help sustain their businesses.

Training

According to Manzi Rutayisire, the head of the BPC section at the PSF, in its three years of eixtence the BPC has been transformed from an award fund to the guarantee fund which intends to give more financial resources to the winners of the business plan competition.

Other areas of restructuring include the nationwide sensitization of the importance of BPC as well as the distribution of forms. On the other side, partners in the BPC program such as USAID and the World Bank evaluate the business plans and guarantee that the best plans win.

Furthermore, applicants are also given training on how to elaborate a good business plan that can be funded. "About 150 applicants have benefited from training, 100 of which have got access to guarantee funds," Manzi Rutayisire said.

On the other side, winners of the competition are facilitated with exposure to trade fairs so as to enrich their knowledge as regards business management.

According to Victoria Kakwa, the World Bank representative to Rwanda, Rwanda needs a more modern, more dynamic and more entrepreneurial private sector.

"The country needs a private sector that is not afraid to take risks, and not afraid to take on new challenges and explore opportunities provided by the ever changing global regional and national context," Kakwa said.

She highlighted four critical elements in developing a strong private sector which include the provision of an enabling environment through a framework of policies regulations and institutions that are conducive to the performance of the private sector.

Kakwa also pointed at the need of infrastructure which ensures that the private sector conducts their activities at reasonable cost and be able to compete effectively on the regional and global markets.

She also remarked that there is a need to access finance, including long-term loans, to implement business ideas, grow and compete. "That is why the BPC, coupled with access to finance provided through the guarantee fund, has been supported by the national bank."

The World Bank representative further insisted that entrepreneurship was important especially in developing a class of savvy modern minded entrepreneurs who are attuned to global and regional best practices in identifying opportunities for business, planning and designing business initiatives and bringing them into full and successful implementation.

Conference facilities

The permanent secretary in the ministry of commerce, Antoine Ruvebana, highlighted the importance of BPC as it particularly targets the SMEs. "It provides the opportunity for SMEs to innovate through expansion of existing businesses," he said.

He also pointed out that through the public-private partnerships, more SMEs are set to achieve better where the public and the private sector will provide the finance while the private sector brings its business ideas and entrepreneur skills.

Ivan Kayonga, one of the winners of this year's edition, said that he BPC would make him realize his dream. "I wrote a business plan about conference facilities that can hold at least 200 people, but it was thanks to the training that I managed to win," Kayonga said.

He urged young entrepreneurs to join BPC and come up with good business ideas that can be financed by the guarantee fund.

Other winners proposed businesses in agricultural processing, basket weaving, wine making as well as brick making. Others had ventured into artifacts and marble processing to make tiles.