Kigali — Twenty business owners and managers of hotels, restaurants, tours and travel agencies under the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment have completed a training course on how to write business plans.

The programme organised by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, was geared towards creating linkages between the SME players in the Tourism sector, with other support institutions.

The training, which was conducted using IFCs own SME toolkit, was delivered in partnership with Maxinet Group Ltd- the managing partner of the SME toolkit in Rwanda and KPS Associates, an IFC-certified training partner of the SME toolkit.

"Doing business without a business plan is like building a house without an architectural plan," Faustin Mbundu , vice chairman of the Private Sector Federation (PSF) said on Friday at the closure of the six day training at Kigali Serena Hotel.

He emphasised that SMEs business owners and managers must be equipped with business planning skills in order to be competitive.

Jn Bade, a representative from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands said that one of the biggest challenges facing majority of African SME business owners was the inability to separate their personal accounts from those of their businesses.

One of the participants, Innocent Karuranga, a cheese maker from Karongi district said the course helped him to learn how to prioritise challenges when dealing with his business.

He identified transport and proper book-keeping as the major areas he planned to immediately deal with when he goes back to his cheese business.