by Dr John Mulford in Kigali, Rwanda
Wednesday 2 March
Drove to town so I could get my Tigo modem repaired. The Tigo rep was very tactful and helpful. He said I had inserted the Sim card in a way he had never seen. It wasn’t easy to remove, but he did it, reinserted it correctly, and had me on my way in five minutes. Dona had gone to the bank, so I walked to Blues Café for the buffet. Two women sat at my table. When I told them what I was doing in Rwanda, one said “that is exactly the program for me.” She works at a bank. I invited her to our open house. She e-mailed me later to say she would come. I think I could recruit at least one [new student] a day just having lunch at Blues Café. It is close to many banks and office buildings.
Other items:
1. Up with the sun again—6:20. Two young Babson College grads came on their motorbikes for breakfast at Solace [guest house]. Ben just finished undergrad and Chris just finished a masters in Int’l business. Their undergrad dean chose them for a 2-yr post-grad fellowship funded with a $100K grant from a donor. They are the program managers of the Babson-Rwanda Entrepreneurship Center, sponsored by PSF (private sector federation), and headed by the undergrad dean back in the States. Seeing all these young, recent grads (Babson and Bridge2Rwanda) spending a year or two in Rwanda makes me think we are missing out—on manpower and enthusiasm—by not attracting Regent grads to do something similar.
Ben & Chris are working on two projects. They started out trying to help an SME investment firm develop its business model and find companies to invest in. That morphed into researching micro hydro-power as an investment target, with the investment firm actually starting and running the company rather than finding an entrepreneur. Their other project is interviewing the approx 20 organizations involved with helping entrepreneurs in Rwanda. They want to catalogue all the players and projects, act as a convener for discussions of best practices, and coordinate joint efforts. They are hosting a half-day seminar Mar 15 for all the people they interview. We will be represented by Dona and Chrystel.
2. Dona picked me up for a meeting at PSF with entrepreneur program specialists, to whom the CEO had steered us. Very informative. Of course, I stepped in it when I mentioned that the Commerce Dept was interested in our running 12 Centers of Excellence throughout Rwanda. As they probed the topic, I told them my impression (which was actually RDB’s position) that whoever had been running the Centers hadn’t been able to make them self-sustaining so RDB took them over. Unfortunately, I was talking to the people who had been running them. Dona said afterward that he saw their countenances darken when I said that. They explained that PSF and RDB will run these Centers jointly. We recovered and got back on a friendly track.
I had been concerned about duplication of efforts between us and PSF. Fortunately, there is almost none. They do lots of basic business skill training and consulting for struggling entrepreneurs—bookkeeping, taxes, customer care, etc.—almost all in Kinyarwanda and mostly outside of Kigali. They seemed quite impressed with our program and asked lots of questions. Betty said she knew almost all the students pictured on our poster—from her connection with universities. We agreed to stay in touch and to refer people to each other. We can refer our graduates to get some skill training that we don’t provide. They said they would refer aspiring entrepreneurs who had high potential but needed a substantial (duration and depth) program like ours. Theirs are a few days max.
4. Met with Anatole and Chrystel to get their assessment of the class so far from their perspective as student support specialists. They seemed pleased with progress. Anatole was impressed with the attendance and effort of the groups during the two weeks between classes. In talking about those meetings, I learned that the students were great at providing information and contacts to each other relevant to their business concepts. What they didn’t do was ask penetrating, challenging questions to test and refine their colleagues’ ideas. They will work on that for the weeks after I leave.
5. Went to class early to meet with Fabrice [graduate from the 1st cohort] about a potential investor in his business. Good to see him. His business is doing great. Has the government contract for all of Rwanda for HIV/Aids test kit. Finishing tests of his malaria test kit, which will also be a big revenue item. Since graduation his vision has expanded from three countries to all of Africa—company is now Africa Medical Supplier. The Africa vision fits the investor’s goals perfectly—they want to invest $1-3 M in a company that will impact all of Africa. Fabrice leaves on a two-week trip to West Africa tomorrow to do business and to meet with JCI chapters there—he is worldwide VP. I asked him to say a few words to the class. He exhorted them to stay the course and he encouraged them to think big. They seemed impressed by his vision and his success.
Got a big hug from Sandrali, who missed Mon and Tues class. He is both the most experienced businessman in the class and the most focused on the material. He said he wants to show me his plans for three businesses—rock quarry, alkaline water, and real estate development. He is also involved with Dona on an insurance project--joint venture with Kenyan company.
Willy caught me at break time to ask me to be his guest speaker at an event for business people. He is trying to run it as a business. He lines up a speaker, advertises and promotes through his mailing list (he is a consultant), and rents a venue. Topic he wants is “how ethical business is more profitable than unethical business.” Right up my alley. Don’t know what kind of audience he’ll turn out, but the target is right for our BDC—young entrepreneurs and business people.
Tonight, I saw a few more businesses that seem to have profit potential. One is to create a large company of plumbing technicians to install, maintain, and repair plumbing systems in commercial buildings. With construction booming and qualified trades people in short supply, this is a growth industry. The other was fiber optic cable repair. The Chinese installed 2,500 km of cable and agreed to maintain it for two years, which ends soon. Farmers and construction crews are digging through the cable several times a day.
6. My energy level was a little low tonight in class. I think it affected the class’ energy. Better get some rest. Tomorrow is a busy day—meetings at RDB, U.S. embassy, etc.
Wednesday 2 March
Drove to town so I could get my Tigo modem repaired. The Tigo rep was very tactful and helpful. He said I had inserted the Sim card in a way he had never seen. It wasn’t easy to remove, but he did it, reinserted it correctly, and had me on my way in five minutes. Dona had gone to the bank, so I walked to Blues Café for the buffet. Two women sat at my table. When I told them what I was doing in Rwanda, one said “that is exactly the program for me.” She works at a bank. I invited her to our open house. She e-mailed me later to say she would come. I think I could recruit at least one [new student] a day just having lunch at Blues Café. It is close to many banks and office buildings.
Other items:
1. Up with the sun again—6:20. Two young Babson College grads came on their motorbikes for breakfast at Solace [guest house]. Ben just finished undergrad and Chris just finished a masters in Int’l business. Their undergrad dean chose them for a 2-yr post-grad fellowship funded with a $100K grant from a donor. They are the program managers of the Babson-Rwanda Entrepreneurship Center, sponsored by PSF (private sector federation), and headed by the undergrad dean back in the States. Seeing all these young, recent grads (Babson and Bridge2Rwanda) spending a year or two in Rwanda makes me think we are missing out—on manpower and enthusiasm—by not attracting Regent grads to do something similar.
Ben & Chris are working on two projects. They started out trying to help an SME investment firm develop its business model and find companies to invest in. That morphed into researching micro hydro-power as an investment target, with the investment firm actually starting and running the company rather than finding an entrepreneur. Their other project is interviewing the approx 20 organizations involved with helping entrepreneurs in Rwanda. They want to catalogue all the players and projects, act as a convener for discussions of best practices, and coordinate joint efforts. They are hosting a half-day seminar Mar 15 for all the people they interview. We will be represented by Dona and Chrystel.
2. Dona picked me up for a meeting at PSF with entrepreneur program specialists, to whom the CEO had steered us. Very informative. Of course, I stepped in it when I mentioned that the Commerce Dept was interested in our running 12 Centers of Excellence throughout Rwanda. As they probed the topic, I told them my impression (which was actually RDB’s position) that whoever had been running the Centers hadn’t been able to make them self-sustaining so RDB took them over. Unfortunately, I was talking to the people who had been running them. Dona said afterward that he saw their countenances darken when I said that. They explained that PSF and RDB will run these Centers jointly. We recovered and got back on a friendly track.
I had been concerned about duplication of efforts between us and PSF. Fortunately, there is almost none. They do lots of basic business skill training and consulting for struggling entrepreneurs—bookkeeping, taxes, customer care, etc.—almost all in Kinyarwanda and mostly outside of Kigali. They seemed quite impressed with our program and asked lots of questions. Betty said she knew almost all the students pictured on our poster—from her connection with universities. We agreed to stay in touch and to refer people to each other. We can refer our graduates to get some skill training that we don’t provide. They said they would refer aspiring entrepreneurs who had high potential but needed a substantial (duration and depth) program like ours. Theirs are a few days max.
4. Met with Anatole and Chrystel to get their assessment of the class so far from their perspective as student support specialists. They seemed pleased with progress. Anatole was impressed with the attendance and effort of the groups during the two weeks between classes. In talking about those meetings, I learned that the students were great at providing information and contacts to each other relevant to their business concepts. What they didn’t do was ask penetrating, challenging questions to test and refine their colleagues’ ideas. They will work on that for the weeks after I leave.
5. Went to class early to meet with Fabrice [graduate from the 1st cohort] about a potential investor in his business. Good to see him. His business is doing great. Has the government contract for all of Rwanda for HIV/Aids test kit. Finishing tests of his malaria test kit, which will also be a big revenue item. Since graduation his vision has expanded from three countries to all of Africa—company is now Africa Medical Supplier. The Africa vision fits the investor’s goals perfectly—they want to invest $1-3 M in a company that will impact all of Africa. Fabrice leaves on a two-week trip to West Africa tomorrow to do business and to meet with JCI chapters there—he is worldwide VP. I asked him to say a few words to the class. He exhorted them to stay the course and he encouraged them to think big. They seemed impressed by his vision and his success.
Got a big hug from Sandrali, who missed Mon and Tues class. He is both the most experienced businessman in the class and the most focused on the material. He said he wants to show me his plans for three businesses—rock quarry, alkaline water, and real estate development. He is also involved with Dona on an insurance project--joint venture with Kenyan company.
Willy caught me at break time to ask me to be his guest speaker at an event for business people. He is trying to run it as a business. He lines up a speaker, advertises and promotes through his mailing list (he is a consultant), and rents a venue. Topic he wants is “how ethical business is more profitable than unethical business.” Right up my alley. Don’t know what kind of audience he’ll turn out, but the target is right for our BDC—young entrepreneurs and business people.
Tonight, I saw a few more businesses that seem to have profit potential. One is to create a large company of plumbing technicians to install, maintain, and repair plumbing systems in commercial buildings. With construction booming and qualified trades people in short supply, this is a growth industry. The other was fiber optic cable repair. The Chinese installed 2,500 km of cable and agreed to maintain it for two years, which ends soon. Farmers and construction crews are digging through the cable several times a day.
6. My energy level was a little low tonight in class. I think it affected the class’ energy. Better get some rest. Tomorrow is a busy day—meetings at RDB, U.S. embassy, etc.
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