MTN Rwandacell Plc awarded five (5) women-led saving groups during the 4th annual Connecting Women in Business (CWiB) initiative in partnership with the National Women Council, Africa Evangelistic Enterprise Rwanda (AEE Rwanda), and the National Union of Disability Organizations in Rwanda (NUDOR).
This initiative that commenced in 2019, has supported more than 1,000 women saving groups so far, both financially and through business acumen training.
In line with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion’s priority of gender equality and empowering women, Connecting Women in Business aims to empower women in their respective projects, growing them to cooperative level allowing them to further improve their quality of life.
Jackline Kamanzi, National Women’s Council Executive Secretary attened the ceremony.
She said that women are the backbone of families therefore by empowering them you are not only supporting them alone but an entire family and a community at large.
“We are grateful to MTN Rwanda for continuing to drive this impactful initiative year in year out. These saving-groups are essential as they play a role in eradicating poverty, sustaining their families, and growing our nation,” she said.
Once again, the MTN Foundation funded initiative selected saving groups from all over the country with five (5) saving groups in the category of Agriculture, five (5) in Art, and four (4) under Fintech and women with disabilities respectively.
These seventeen (17) savings groups were chosen out of a total of four hundred (400) groups based on the performance of their ongoing projects and their vision.
This phase of identifying the savings groups was supported by our partners AEE Rwanda, a local Christian NGO dedicated to working with families to eradicate poverty and NUDOR, the umbrella organization that exists to strengthen the voice of persons with disabilities in Rwanda.
Following their selection in their respective categories, the saving groups underwent the second phase of the competition, where judges from MTN Rwanda, National Women Council and NUDOR assessed them and selected the top three (3) winners from each category who then competed in the final round in Kigali where a winner for each of the four (4) categories was announced as well as an Overall Winner who won the grand prize of Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Rwandan Francs (Rwf 2.5 million).
The grand prize amount has been increased for this edition of Connecting Women in Business in recognition of MTN Rwanda turning twenty-five (25) this year, giving the winning group an even greater opportunity to invest in projects to support their families and communities.
Zulfat Mukarubega, MTN Rwanda Foundation Chairperson highlighted that “It is pleasing to hear the various projects from these women saving groups. These women are intelligent, hardworking, and resilient.”
“We would like to thank the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion through the National Women Council for their support and our partners AEE Rwanda and NUDOR, who have been instrumental in selecting the savings groups and following up with their respective projects.”
She congratultoed the winners and said that she hopes this will be an encouragement to other saving groups across the country to join future editions of Connecting Women in Business.
The top three (3) winners in each category underwent a Master Class in the areas of taxes, general legal matters, digital marketing, saving schemes, and conflict resolution, which will aid in growing their businesses with the aim of creating wealth.
Mapula Bodibe, MTN Rwanda Chief Executive Officer, also congratulated this year’s winners.
She said each saving group was selected from a critical category that represents much of our economy today: agriculture, arts, fintech and women with disability.
“One of the areas of exposure provided to the saving groups is digital marketing, because we believe social networks, for example, can propel these saving groups’ projects further, resonating with year’s Women’s Day theme DigitAll: Innovation and technology for gender equality, which highlights the importance of leveraging digital tools to empower women and girls in all aspects of life.”
She added that, “We encourage these women saving groups to not only keep using these tools but pass them down to others in their communities.”