ILO conducts SIYB Trainings for Business Development Fund (BDF) in Rwanda

Kigali/Dar es Salaam (ILO News) As part of ILO’s support to SME development in Rwanda, the ILO is conducting SIYB trainings for certification of a partner organization’s staff in Rwanda, Business Development Fund (BDF) in Kigali, from 24 July to 02 August 2017. BDF is a finance arm of the Government of Rwanda established to consolidate and manage all existing government funds available to support Rwandan SMEs in terms of credit guarantee schemes, matching grants, Quasi-Equity as well as providing a range of Business Advisory Services across the 30 districts in Rwanda. BDF plays a key role in the implementation of the SME policy especially in the framework of the National Employment Programme.

For the last two years, ILO in Rwanda has been engaged in partnership with BDF to support its business advisory services both at its headquarters and its branches located across the 30 districts in Rwanda using it’s Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) kit. The main strength of BDF as ILO’s partner in MSME development lies in its mandate and the strong support it receives from the government to blend it’s access to finance arm with business advisory services spread across the country. Its clients are mostly start-ups, small and medium enterprises, associations, and cooperatives. BDF is strongly linked with financial institutions including commercial banks and SACCOs and it works in partnership with a range of NGOs supporting livelihood programmes. For these reasons ILO chose to partner with BDF in implementing the SIYB program in Rwanda to reach out to as many beneficiaries as possible for its sustainability requirements.

Todate, the ILO has trained all BDF officers in its district branch offices. Over 70 branch officers have been trained as trainers in SIYB and currently about 40 of them who are certified are providing business advisory services in different districts of Rwanda using the SIYB kit. In trainings for certification, where mostly young entrepreneurs are targeted, BDF have trained over 600 people. The aim is to scale this capacity further to BDF staff at its headquarters and to ensure key management positions are equipped with staff who can implement SIYB.

The ongoing SIYB trainings are a follow up to the ToT workshop held in November 2016 in which 21 BDF officers benefited; out of them nine (9) officers are currently training for certification. It is expected that over 140 young entrepreneurs will benefit from these trainings and the certification event is slated for 02 August 2017.