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R-L: Samuel Mutuyimana, Emerine Batamuriza and Gikumi Ukwitegetse
The Bank of Kigali (BK) PLC has rewarded three outstanding students at INES Ruhengeri with money that will help them to start implementing their lifetime dreams after school.
The three students were rewarded this March 11,2022 with Rwf3million (each taking Rwf1m) as part of the bank’s new initiative to promote future entrepreneurship through innovation in doing business among youth and especially university graduates.
The rewards were handed to graduate students for the Class of 2022- Samuel Mutuyimana (Civil Engineering), Emerine Batamuriza (Land Management) and Gikumi Ukwitegetse (Information Technology) who completed their university education with flying colors and performance.
Jean de Dieu Habanintwari, the BK Northern Regional Branch Manager, who represented the bank at the rewarding ceremony said that the bank is committed to supporting young entrepreneurs who will become future investors and business owners.
“This financial support (funding) will help these outstanding students to have a starting point to implement their dream projects. We know most students have very good business projects and we are here to support them to realize them,” Habanintwari said.
Habanintwari said that the university student’s project financing program at BK will continue and the beneficiaries also are accompanied throughout their implementation journey with an aim to have bankable projects succeed, which in turn will have a direct positive impact on the economy and transformation of lives of Rwandans- the bank’s main mission in Rwanda.
The benefiting students said that the financial assistance will enable them to implement their projects which they have been thinking of and planning through their school days and to implement after graduating.
“This is exciting for me to be able to implement my dream project thanks to the Bank of Kigali,” said Mutuyimana, a Civil Engineering graduate who plans to form a professional construction company to create more jobs in the booming construction sector in Rwanda today.
Ukwitegetse, one of the two females rewarded by BK said that the funding will enable her to implement a modern mixed farming and livestock business to promote agri-business activities in the country which has over 70% of the population depending on agricultural activities.
INES Ruhengeri students also said that they are proud of the Bank of Kigali student’s oriented services which enable them to do deposit, save and withdraw using the student’s savings accounts.
This graduation of 872 students in sciences, law, economics & finance and education was the first physical presence ceremony held at the INES Ruhengeri college after two years of holding hybrid graduations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On behalf of the Ministry of Education, Dr. Theoneste Ndikubwimana, the Executive Director High Education Council (HEC) asked the graduating students to be the seeds of the country’s future and economic transformation by focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship to enable the country attain it’s development goals of becoming a middle income country by 2030.
Ruhengeri diocese Bishop Vincent Harolimana who presided over the graduation ceremony and blessed the graduands thanked the government of Rwanda for supporting the education sector through the pandemic with resilience and recovery funds which were channelled through commercial banks like the Bank of Kigali.
Harolimana asked the graduates to live an exemplary life of service above self using the skills and education they have attained from INES Ruhengeri, a college which promotes education through Christian values.
