Rwanda: Secondary School Graduates Urged to Beware of Bogus Rwanda Trade Fair Recruitments

22 August 2024
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Grace Gichuhi

Secondary school graduates urged to beware of bogus Rwanda trade fair recruitments

IN SHORT: A fraudulent Facebook post offers work opportunities at the Rwanda International Trade Fair, even though the event ended on 15 August 2024. The post's deadline of 23 August casts further doubt on its legitimacy.

A Facebook post claims that the Private Sector Federation (PSF) is offering an early career experience programme for secondary school graduates at the Rwanda International Trade Fair (RITF).

The PSF has been organising the trade fair every year since 1998 in partnership with Rwanda's Ministry of Trade. It is the largest expo in the country, attracting hundreds of global exhibitors.

The three-week exhibition showcases products from sectors such as information and communication technology, banking and agribusiness. It is an important platform for companies to enter the Rwandan market.

According to the post, the programme will provide graduates with practical work experience, income and professional exposure.

Applications are supposedly open until 23 August 2024. There is also a link for those interested to apply.

The positions advertised include supervisors, technical support, event coordinators and staff focused on customer service, logistics support, sales and marketing.

The claim has also been published here and here. (Note: See more instances listed at the end of this report.)

But did the PSF invite secondary school graduates to apply for this valuable early work experience programme? We checked.

Dodgy application process

To apply, candidates must first complete a form requesting personal information such as name, identification number, gender, date of birth, contact details, marital status, place of residence and educational background.

Once this form has been completed, the next page confirms that the application has been received and is being processed, and asks that they wait to be contacted by email. It also asks the applicant to share this opportunity with others.

Instructions to share usually signal an engagement bait scam. The more the link is shared, the more traction it gets.

'It's fake news'

For 2024, the RITF event was scheduled to start on 25 July and end on 15 August. This means that the application deadline falls after the end of the exhibition.

PSF Rwanda also flagged the claim on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, calling it fraudulent.

"PUBLIC ATTENTION! Please, ignore the Information saying PSF is conducting an Early Career Experience Program For Secondary School Graduates. It's fake news!" the federation wrote.

The same claim has also been published here, here and here.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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