The telecommunications company MTN Rwanda has awarded 12 women’s groups who have excelled in creating projects with a sustainable vision, through the MTN Connect Women in Business 2024 competition which has been held for the fifth time.
It was a ceremony that took place in Kigali on the evening of March 26, 2024. Women from all the provinces of the country were selected to the final stage of this competition aimed at promoting them.
12 winners were awarded in the final stage of the competition which included 32 groups. The groups work on projects divided into four categories: agriculture and breeding, handicrafts, technology and a special category that is added this year to the women’s groups. people with disabilities and refugees.
All the groups that started in the competition were 80 from all over the country, The competition is also held in collaboration with the Ministry of Equality and Community Development and the Rwandan Evangelical Community (AEE) affiliated to the Anglican Church.
In each category, the first four groups were awarded 300 thousand Frw, the fourth received 800 thousand Frw, the second group received 1 million Frw and the first received 1.5 million Frw each.
The group that agreed to create a project with a sustainable vision is the Tubane Association working on pineapple farming in Nyamagabe District in Musange Sector. It was awarded an annual prize of 3 million Frw.
The cash prizes were not given in hand but will be included in the projects that the winners are working on in order to expand it further to continue to develop them and then MTN Rwanda will continue to monitor their performance.
Mukantaganzwa Donatille who represented the Tubane Association that won the annual award spoke about their feelings towards MTN Rwanda and what they expected from the award they received.
He said, “My friends and I are very happy. Our feeling about MTN is to love it more; we knew that it only works for communication but we saw that it also works for other useful functions. We are going to encourage our colleagues to do what they like because those who will reward them are there.”
Continuing on what they expect to spend the money they won, he said: “We are going to expand our activities because we have the intention of making juice from these pineapples to increase the value of our harvest.” This woman and many other salaried people have shared ideas to further develop their business using the money they won.
Alain Numa, Director of Relations with Other Organizations in MTN Rwanda, said that the MTN Connect Women in Business program was initiated in order to reach out to women who work in small businesses but have a sustainable vision so that they too can rise in development.
He said that this year the event has progressed because the groups that participated in the competition this year are equal to the number of participants since the beginning of 2019.
He said, “The theme of this year’s Women’s Day is not to exclude women from development. We, like MTN, leave no one behind. We learned that even those in the camps have groups and should not be replaced by refugees because they are doing important work for self-development. That is why we have added this special category for the disabled and disabled.”
