Jaurès Habineza displays the web portal
In 2014, Jaurès Habineza was among Rwandan youth in Diaspora that travelled to Rwanda and learn about the country’s progress and available opportunities.
From Canada, he attended the National Dialogue (Umushyikirano) and at the end of the two day event, Habineza and his counterpart from Canada Eric Moses Gashirabake took selfies with President Paul Kagame.
“We were quick to post these photos on Instagram, facebook and WhatsApp. But the question was for what purpose,” Habineza asked himself after the 12th National Dialogue Council in 2014.
Three years on, this question stayed in Habineza’s mind and he decided to use available opportunities to be part of the change and transformation of the country.
He started the international Rwanda Youth for Development – an organization aimed at creating opportunity for the youth.
At the time, Rwanda had started the Made in Rwanda agenda as a strategy of steering national development.
The organization focused on showing existing opportunities, creating jobs, and sharing knowledge between Rwandans from home and the diaspora. From there, Made in Rwanda online was born to market local products.
Today, MadeinRwandaOnline does marketing and selling of Made in Rwanda products in Canada.
“In less than four months of operation, the platform has transacted and sold locally made products worth $135,000 – these products include handcrafts, fashions and agricultural, ” said Allan Ishema, the Finance Manager of MadeinRwandaOnline,https://www.madeinrwanda.online/.
Habineza said that they achieved this goal because they avoided being a microwave generation- one which wants things done in an instant with minimal efforts.
“The youth need to take a stance, work hard and accept to work as a team. But also continue education and be visionary” Habineza said today during Day Two of the 15th National Dialogue Council.
His company has already signed a MoU with Agence de Promotion des Investissements Privés (APIP-Guinée) to develop a similar platform for marketing and selling Guinean products online.
Rwanda Central Bank indicates that import and export bills continued to deteriorate by 11.0 percent to U$752.62 million in the first five months of 2016 from U$677.85 million in the same period in 2015.
