StArfrica recognizes more Rwandan students’ business ideas

By Elias HAKIZIMANA.

StArfrica -Startup Germany-Africa has announced and given certificates to 17 University students who designed business ideas during the second cohort.

Three winners of the contestants at the final pitch will gain a promotion to an advanced boot camp to gain tailored in-depth knowledge and improve their skills on entrepreneurship and business management.

Startup Germany-Africa (StArfrica) is a cooperation project between the University of Rwanda and the University of Koblenz-Landau. The aim of the project is to promote startups from science in Rwanda and in Germany.

The project focuses especially on Germany as a country for setting up businesses for Rwandan startups and Rwanda as a country for setting up businesses for German startups as well as for the market entry of medium-sized companies.

Speaking to the media on July 24, 2022 during the event in Kigali, Katharina Hartwig,  the StArfricaProject Lead in Rwanda said that there is no direct financing for the winning projects – instead the project is tailored to give an free intense 3-months training to young Rwandans with around 50 workshop sessions by experienced Rwandan mentors, such as entrepreneurs, lawyers, accountants and career  specialists.

“This year we opened up for the second cohort to all universities in Rwanda and started with 40 incubatees from different institutions, mainly UR but also ALU and CMU students. The top three winners will get an additional free mentorship and as well as access to a valuable network of contacts and opportunities. If if necessary we can also help with an application for the EXIST business start-up in order to start a business in Germany.” Katharina said.

The first StArfrica incubator program ran from June-September 2021 with around 310 applications for the first week Pre Incubator and 216 of them were accepted while 78 applicants passed the Pre Incubator and joined the incubator. The 12-week program that ran virtually due to Covid-19 lockdowns ended with 21 great pitches according to Katharina.

The program content

“The content is a mixture of entrepreneurship and job-readiness skills. And we also have fireside chats with different corporate institutions in the private sector as well as career talks with HR managers from companies such as Zipline and Jibu Water in Rwanda.” Katharina explained.

She noted that the program requires high commitment and assignments every week for incubatees to gain needed skills.

Top winners speak out

Diane Mumararungu, a student from the University of Rwanda in the final year of Architecture has been recognized the best overall winner for her project pitch dubbed ‘Rwanda Green Lighting’ that intends to bring green solutions through producing street lights.

“My project idea is Rwanda Green Lighting which about producing street lights with its respective energy source by using greenhouse gases, so, greenhouse gases are transformed into street lights with their respective energy.” Mumararungu said.

Aline Ihirwe Uwase is one of the group of three which was recognized as the first runner-up. “We build a mobile application in the fintech area that enables people in Rwanda to send money abroad (in Germany) and people in Germany to send money in Rwanda – fast, simple and reliable.” She said.

Hubert Benjamin Ishimwe, the second runner-up of this cohort final pitch has come up with a smart irrigation business idea which he says will help Rwandans to increase agricultural productivity.

“The system will be automatic, I will install sensors in the fields of farmers and these sensors will be able to detect humidity level in the soil and irrigate the farm automatically. The user can be able to see the time, temperature, humidity and other parameters of the soil without going to the field.” Ishimwe said.  

So far, the program has supported more than 120 young Rwandans in the past two years.

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