Rwanda has made remarkable progress in development in recent years. The government shows a high degree of development orientation and makes high and targeted investments in the social and economic infrastructure. The IT sector currently contributes about 2-3% of the gross domestic product and is considered the fastest growing sector of the Rwandan economy. Its structure is heterogeneous with many freelancers, several start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and a few internationally successful ICT companies. Deficits are seen above all in the lack of practical experience of ICT university graduates, in the start-ups' lack of business management knowledge and in the poorly developed soft skills.
In this PartnerAfrica project, the German Association of IT SMEs (BITMi) e.V. and the ICT Chamber are cooperating. They already worked together successfully in 2019 as part of a GIZ project. The project builds on the experiences and activities of this cooperation and develops it further. The target groups of the project are graduates, company founders and employees of new and established SMEs in the ICT sector as well as young adults who are already working in the sector or would like to become active. These should be reached by strengthening the ICT Chamber as an intermediary organisation. In addition to creating new jobs, the cooperation should increase the number of co-sourcing contracts between German and Rwandan companies. National and international business relations should be established, and companies or graduates should be prepared for the national and international ICT market through qualification measures.