RUYIGI February 2nd (ABP) – The Burundi Shining Star University of Ruyigi organized Friday, January 28, 2022, an exchange workshop on the ways and means that can encourage the entrepreneurial spirit among the youth of Ruyigi province.
The youth of the province of Ruyigi is called upon to overcome fear and redouble their efforts in undertaking development projects. The administration is also called upon to provide support and regular monitoring of development cooperatives so that the money they receive is better managed.
As indicated by the young students of that university as well as other young entrepreneurs from different municipalities, who were invited to that workshop, the youth of Ruyigi feel the fear of entrepreneurship and most of the young people have this fear following the lack of sufficient information and knowledge to initiate development projects.
Following that fear of bankruptcy, some young entrepreneurs subsequently opt to work alone and that challenge hinders their progress towards the desired individual and community development.
According to Mrs. Alice Rwamo, rector of the Burundi Shining Star University, that fear is due to the fact that entrepreneurship is very recent in the Burundian education system and that some young people, especially living in rural areas, do not have sufficient in this regard.
According to her, the various schools and especially the universities operating in Burundi should include in their programs, teaching sessions on entrepreneurship so that the graduates of these universities are able to create jobs instead of being job seekers.
She also indicates that her university promotes what she calls active pedagogy, which consists of inculcating an entrepreneurial culture by helping them to set up personal development projects as soon as they enter that university, but also through regular follow-up until each student can start his own project at the end of this university.
Mr. Athanase Mbonimpa, university teacher and expert in business management, provided advice to all this youth in particular and the population of Ruyigi in general, so that the entrepreneurial spirit can become a reality at home and that they can undertake projects that yield expected and long-lasting fruits. Among other things, he called on them to overcome the fear of bankruptcy and have the audacity to start. He also talked about the willingness to learn that must always characterize the entrepreneur, learning from other entrepreneurs who have succeeded and the factors that have favored their success without forgetting that they will also learn stories of bankruptcy so as not to know the same fate.
In the case of young people who come together in cooperatives to benefit from the loans they receive from the government, Mr. Mbonimpa suggests that there be very rigorous control of the use of the funds allocated and a culture of accountability, so that all beneficiaries can always know that development is also governed by monitoring and evaluation to know the weaknesses and strengths and especially how to remedy the weaknesses of the company.
He also asked the administration to always intensify awareness sessions so that the people can appropriate the entrepreneurial culture and that this fear of entrepreneurship can be dissipated forever.