“Entrepreneurship is the surest way for a nation to meet its goals and to develop
prosperity for the greatest number of people” - President Paul Kagame
Rwanda’s Challenge
Rwanda is now considered one of the safest, cleanest, least corrupt and fastest growing countries in Africa. Over the last decade, significant progress has been made across many areas including security, education, healthcare, infrastructure, governance and economic development. However, to achieve the goals of its Vision 2020, Rwanda must accelerate the growth and competitiveness of its private sector. It must promote entrepreneurship, stimulate innovation, train managers, teach business skills and encourage foreign and domestic investors.
As entrepreneurial American businesspeople, we have concluded that the most significant contribution we can make to Rwanda over the next ten years is to help accelerate the launching and growth of profitable privately-owned businesses and mobilize talented individuals to teach and work alongside Rwandans.
Bridge2Rwanda At A Glance (bridge2rwanda.org)
Bridge2Rwanda’s mission is to build a bridge from our world to Rwanda and transform lives at both ends. We encourage, connect and create opportunities for those called to invest their talent and resources in Rwanda. We are dedicated to building Rwanda’s network of friends and to preparing the next global generation for extraordinary lives that merge professional excellence, wealth creation and social mission.
- B2R Talent (2001) – We mobilize extraordinary volunteers to invest their talents in Rwanda’s schools, private enterprises and government agencies. We draw from a significant movement motivated by faith, compassion, adventure and the desire to live a life of meaning and service. We have directed talent to Sonrise School, Kigali International Community School, Rwanda Development Board, Shyira Hospital, King Faisal Hospital, Urwego Opportunity Bank and Ishema Hotel.
- Sonrise School (2002) – We partnered with Bishop John Rucyahana to build Sonrise High School in Musanze. Sonrise School is considered one of Rwanda’s top academic primary and secondary boarding schools. Of its 1300 students, half are orphans. We continue to provide volunteer teachers, equipment and supplies.
- Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda (2004) – We partnered with Opportunity International, World Relief and Hope International to establish Rwanda’s largest for-profit, full-service microfinance bank. Dabbs Cavin served as UOB’s initial CEO. Dale Dawson and Bishop John Rucyahana serve on UOB’s board of directors.
- U.S. Businesspeople in Rwanda (2004) – We introduce entrepreneurs and corporate professionals to Rwanda. We encourage and facilitate philanthropy on behalf of and foreign investments in Rwanda. Some of the foreign investments we have encouraged include Urwego Opportunity Bank (microfinance), Rwanda Trading Company (coffee milling/exporting), Karisimbi Partners (business consulting) and Ikiraro Investments (poultry operations in collaboration with Tyson Foods and mini-hydroelectric plants).
- U. S. Universities in Rwanda (2006) – B2R encourages and facilitates hands-on projects, internships and study broad programs by university students and professors. Schools have included Rice, Baylor, Hendrix and the Clinton School at University of Arkansas.
- Rwanda Presidential Scholars Program (2007) – B2R partners with Hendrix College, the Rwanda Ministry of Education and the Clinton Foundation to enable Rwanda’s best math and science students to receive four-year scholarships to attend U.S. colleges and universities. In exchange, the students must work in Rwanda for five years after graduation. Beginning fall 2010, we will have 111 students at seventeen U.S. schools.
- Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) (2007) – Three B2R board members – Dale Dawson, Scott Ford and Bishop John Rucyahana – serve on President Paul Kagame’s international PAC that meets twice a year.
Bridge2Rwanda Operating Model
Bridge2Rwanda serves as a catalyst and facilitator for those called to Rwanda. We work hard, respond quickly to opportunities and strive to leverage our resources for maximum impact. Year-round, B2R introduces, hosts, connects and creates opportunities for dozens of high capacity U.S. businesspeople and their families, universities, individuals and other nonprofit organizations on behalf of Rwanda.
Our strengths are a dense network of friends who share our passion for Rwanda and a talented team of highly-motivated individuals that can get things done. B2R aggressively partners with any individual, private organization or government that shares our calling. We value relationships and don’t care who receives credit as long as Rwanda’s best interests are served.
Currently, the B2R team has only three salaried positions, but includes 13 full-time volunteer and paid staff and 9 part-time project champions. We maintain a U.S. office, two houses (Kigali and Musanze) and four vehicles for our team and the constant flow of staff and visitors. We tell Rwanda’s story through a variety of means including a vibrant website, blogs, emails, social networks, videos, photographs and an active schedule of travel and speaking engagements.
For 2010, we estimate that B2R’s out-of-pocket operating expenses will be approximately $400,000, excluding the personal support of our self-funded staff. These annual operating expenses are funded by individual donors, private foundations and increasingly by our efforts to recover more of our operating costs from the individuals and organizations we serve.
Bridge2Rwanda Center for Entrepreneurship
Bridge2Rwanda will establish the Center for Entrepreneurship in Kigali in 2010 to promote enterprise solutions to poverty, new business creation and business training in Rwanda and Africa. The Center will build on our on-the-ground experience and dense network of friends to serve as a catalyst and facilitator for a variety of clients including:
- Entrepreneurs and Investors
- Corporations and Business Profesionals
- Universities
- Students, Recent College Graduates and Aspiring Entrepreneurs
- Governments and Nonprofit Organizations
B2R will continue to identify and create opportunities for our clients to invest their time and resources in promising enterprises that provide essential, market-driven products and services. For individuals with the skills and passion to serve, the Center will facilitate their lending their talent to explore, develop and promote innovative private sector solutions to Africa’s greatest challenges. For those that can teach, we will find opportunities for them to build the capacity of aspiring entrepreneurs and businesspeople – job creators.
2010 Action Plan
- Establish Kigali Office – The Rwandan government has offered B2R temporary office space in the Telecom House Building in Kigali. We are exploring the opportunity of sharing the space with Carnegie Mellon University, OTF and other organizations that require office space and classroom facilities to teach a variety of subjects and students.
- Expand Staff – As the number of volunteers, visitors and activities increase, B2R will need to increase our Rwanda-based team. The team currently includes Tom Allen (Country Director), Mark Darrough (Business Manager) and Kat Watson (Project Director). In July, we plan to transfer our U.S. Business Manager, Blayne Sharpe, to serve as our Rwanda Operations Manager. We will add additional staff in Rwanda as needed, and we expect most to be self-funded. We will replace Blayne with a new salaried U.S. Business Manager, adding a fourth salaried position to B2R’s full-time staff.
- Mobilize Larger and More Diverse Talent Program – We are seeking businesspeople with industry and professional expertise; corporate attorneys and accountants; and teachers of entrepreneurship, business and computer skills and English. We also welcome recent college graduates to serve when we are confident that their lack of experience will be offset by their talent, passion and humility.
In April 2010, B2R entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Rwanda’s Ministry of Justice to help mobilize four U.S. attorneys to serve on the Attorney General’s staff reviewing contracts and drafting legislation. The ministry will provide housing and a stipend.
Rwandan private investors – Crystal Ventures, Rwanda Investment Group and the Social Security Fund of Rwanda – have asked B2R to develop a program to provide U.S. financial analysts to support their activities and to train aspiring young Rwandan financial analysts. Clay Parker, a B2R volunteer currently working as a financial analyst in Little Rock, will move to Kigali to begin the program.
This spring, B2R hosted a poultry expert from Tyson Foods to provide technical advice to an American entrepreneur launching an egg production business in Rwanda. We also arranged for a dairy expert from Canada to advise the Ministry of Agriculture for the month of March. In June, we will host a respresentative of KPMG, the global accounting firm, to identify opportunities for their former partners to lend their talent and expertise to the Rwanda government ministries and private sector.
Sonrise School and other private schools have requested B2R to help them attract U.S. volunteer teachers in English, computers, math, science, entrepreneurship, art and music. We also have been asked to mobilize additional talent for various government ministries and the healthcare sector.
- Encourage Foreign Investment and New Business Development – We believe that one of the most significant contributions that we can make is to encourage foreign entrepreneurs and corporations to invest in and help build profitable businesses in Rwanda. The Center staff will continue working with Rwanda’s private sector, government and others to identify promising business opportunities. We will identify foreign businesspeople with specific industry expertise and/or an entrepreneurial passion to help Rwanda. We’ll encourage partnerships with Rwandans.
- Engage Universities – Rwanda offers numerous unique opportunities for university business and engineering students and professors. One of the most exciting examples is Dr. Marc Epstein’s Rice University MBA course on technology commercialization in developing countries. The course and its Rwanda field trip provide a life-changing, hands-on learning experience for business and engineering students. In addition, the course stimulates the creation of new appropriate technologies and innovative enterprise solutions to the challenges of Rwanda and Africa.
We will challenge more university business and engineering schools to design innovative products, prepare comprehensive business plans and launch new enterprises in Rwanda. For the most promising ideas, we will connect and encourage partnerships with foreign and Rwandan entrepreneurs to incubate and further develop the business enterprise. In addition to Rice, we have begun discussions with Baylor, Carnegie Mellon, Washington and Lee and John Hopkins. We are seeking one or more self-funded staff members to focus on connecting and coordinating our university partnerships.
We will encourage foreign universities to establish accredited teaching programs in Rwanda like Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) graduate engineering school at Rwanda’s Regional ITC Center of Excellence. We have begun discussions with Tim McNulty, responsible for the CMU program in Rwanda, to locate the B2R Center for Entrepreneurship with the permanent CMU facilities at the Center of Excellence. We would support the incubation and commercialization of new innovations; provide access to local networks and introductions to foreign mentors, entrepreneurs, corporations and private equity groups.
We also want to encourage more programs for foreign students visit, intern and study abroad in Rwanda and for Rwandan students receive scholarships to study abroad.
- Research and Advocacy – In partnership with SEVEN Fund, B2R will support the development of a “think tank” in Kigali to encourage and facilitate research and advocacy for enterprise solutions to poverty in Africa. We will work with Rwanda Development Board’s Investment and Promotion Implementation Department, OTF Group and other organizations to identify and promote the significant private enterprises launched in Rwanda. Universities, corporations, nonprofits and others will be invited to conduct research on these activities and publish their findings and case studies.
- Recent Developments – B2R is partnering with TOM’s Shoes in 2010 to distribute 33,000 pairs of shoes to children in need in Rwanda. We have also initiated discussions with TOM’s to explore the possibility of manufacturing shoes in Rwanda for TOM’s to distribute throughout Africa. In May, B2R will be hosting a team of Baylor University business students studying in Rwanda. We have enlisted them to conduct market research on the shoe industry in Rwanda under the direction of TOM’s shoe industry guru.
This summer, B2R will help host the ONE Campus Challenge which is bringing several of America’s top college-level student advocates for solutions to global poverty for a week of on-the-ground listening and learning in Rwanda. The Bono-founded ONE, which has historically focused most of its efforts on lobbying governments for foreign aid, has asked B2R to specifically expose the students to private enterprise solutions to poverty.
