More than 50,000 young people have undergone training honing their entrepreneurship and business management skills through the MasterCard Foundation’s ’Hanga Ahazaza’ initiative.

Hanga Ahazaza is a consortium of partners from the education, development, and private sectors, working together to support small businesses and entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality sector through increased access to financial services and training, and by connecting them to young people with the skills needed to be successful employees.

Beneficiaries of this initiative showcased their activities recently on September 28th at the celebration of World Tourism Day.

They attest that it has helped them in daily work, hence making their activities more successful.

Beneficiaries have become professionals running businesses efficiently as a result of knowledge gained from this training program.

Gloria Girabawe, an entrepreneur and Creative Director of Flove, a company which produces eco-friendly bags, said that her business currently needs more training to thrive than simply focusing on money.

"Looking at where my business is right now, we need enhanced skills to improve the quality of our products for our business to flourish because our progress would be almost a no go, if we make substandard bags,” she said.

Hanga Ahazaza is a MasterCard Foundation’s program created to increase employment opportunities for young people in the tourism sector.

Five years after this program started, it has helped many beneficiaries as revealed by the Country Head of MasterCard Foundation, Rica Rwigamba.

"Today, we are proud of our achievements. So far, we have reached 54,000 young people, 2500 projects have been funded, and about eight thousand have got new job opportunities," she noted.

“It has been a difficult journey, and our partners have also played a big part for their resilience amidst difficult times of Covid-19 pandemic,” added Rwigamba.

In celebration of World Tourism Day, Rwanda Development Board (RDB) unveiled a new digital platform called ‘Gorilla Gram’ that will help visitors to monitor gorillas on social media.

Information about the gorilla’s family will be available on Facebook and Instagram, according to Michaella Rugwizangoga, Chief Tourism Officer at RDB.

She explained that it will help the visitors of gorillas to participate in research, their conservation and have enough information when they want to visit them.

AE News