Kigali — This year's Business Plan Competition (BPC) that had been scheduled for the start of September is going to be delayed due to changes in the application procedures, according to the Private Sector Federation (PSF).

"We are going to delay the distribution of application forms to the end of this month (September) due to the restructures within the programme," Antoine Manzi, the Director of Entrepreneurship at PSF disclosed.

Unlike other BPCs in the past, priority has been placed on vocational and university students. Manzi said that the selection procedure remains the same. "We shall distribute the applications. Get summaries of their business ideas and evaluate the innovation, financial and management aspects.

The selected ones will go through a one week's training on writing business plan," Manzi explained. He added that starting with next year, prior to the competition there will be sensitisation in universities to encourage students join the competition.

BPC was started in 2004 and since then it has gone on to increase from 5 to 100 beneficiaries. Its aim is to provide finances for the birth of new business ideas in a bid to expand the private sector.