BUJUMBURA October 26th (ABP) – The President of the Republic of Burundi, Mr. Evariste Ndayishimiye received in audience Monday, October 25, 2021 at Ntare Rushatsi House, a delegation of American economic operators led by Charles Hoskinson.
In a press briefing held at the end of the audience, the President’s deputy spokesperson, Mr. Alain Diomède Nzeyimana, indicated that the delegation comes from an American company which the President learned about during his trip to New York. It is a company that works in many sectors where digitization is the main product and works in more than 50 countries.
Mr. Nzeyimana also specified that these economic operators have been in Africa for five years. They work in Ethiopia and they arrived in Burundi via Zanzibar. As each country has priorities, these economic operators start from the country’s priorities.
In Burundi, the general people and agriculture census is scheduled for 2022. So, Burundi needs a biometric identity. That is a job that is going to be done by this company or it can participate directly or indirectly. In addition to digitization, we need knowledge and it does not go through third parties (e.g., Internet connection) and they can offer products in that area at a cheaper price.
The deputy president’s spokesperson also said the training of young people and women to have access to employment. These economic operators gave the example of the training provided in Ethiopia where out of 21 trained, they offered work to six people at the company based in the United States. So, that is a way of transferring knowledge. He recalled that the government is in the process of ensuring that young people who graduate from universities are trained for a period of time to be professionals in order to teach others.
In the financial sector, Mr. Nzeyimana stressed that those economic operators have possibilities of giving short-term loans but small loans for entrepreneurship whether they are young people or women, and a good thing is that it works as a cooperative where the company is not going to give 100% capital but there is local participation.
He clarified that for the moment, a team of Burundian experts will be appointed to sit down with the team of the United States company to see the possibilities and sectors of interest to take advantage of the expertise of that company.