By Edwin Ashimwe
Despite efforts to enhance the performance of local start-ups within the eco-system of Rwanda’s ICT sector, resilience remains fairly low, government figures show.
According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, 98 percent of businesses are considered SMEs, contributing 41 percent of all private-sector jobs.
However, most of them collapse before their fifth anniversary due to challenges related to macroeconomic factors, business environment, growth opportunities, and historical determinants.
A survey carried out by the same ministry in 2016, highlighted a lack of raw materials, sufficient working capital, limited market and lack of skilled labor is the major challenges faced by SMEs.
Since then, the government, through its various institutions and stakeholders, has come up with various programs to help SMEs improve their business operations.
One of the programs has been the concept of incubation hubs to help tech-oriented entrepreneurs and young innovators nature their ideas and turn them into viable and scalable businesses.
However, the initiative has left a number of incubated projects hanging in doubt as they fail to succeed after the incubation phase.
Only a few local start-ups have sustained their market, such as AC Group, DM HeHe, Hexakomb, among others.
Needless to mention, the majority of start-ups incubated in hubs such as KLab, have not survived the sector…read more>>
