THE FUTURE OF TRADE & INDUSTRIALIZATION

Hailing from Kigali, Rwanda, Gloria Kantengwa serves as the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Associate with The Challenges Group, an International Management, Trade and Development Organization.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication with a concentration in Business from Southern New Hampshire University. Her mission in life is to become a game changer, as she envisions a world where no one should get out of the box and imagine things in a different way.

For the past five years, Gloria has been working in the Social Entrepreneurship and market linkages space. She is passionate in enhancing social justice for poverty alleviation and boosting the emerging economies to attain the leading sustainable development goals of the globe.

How can youth overcome the growing challenge of rising youth unemployment rates?

Young people have got no other option, apart from pushing ourselves into creative and sustainable spaces, conscious of the fact that although there may be a lack of resources or in the case of some African countries lack of political stability. It is time to use our minds more than ever to solve the problems; we should invest in creative solutions and bring them onboard. On the other hand, we need to recognize and celebrate the people who are innovative and who take up leadership positions. There is a higher level of educated youth than ever before in history, if we could use the knowledge of these youths, expand on to, and tap into our innovation and creativity, it would produce something that would pay off in millions of years to come.

What are the challenges facing youth entrepreneurs who own/start Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)?

In some instances, young entrepreneurs find it hard to operate in broken and corrupted systems whereby they do not know which institution to approach for a specific support.

Even where there are institutions, they are requested bribes to process their requests or even the support provided is given to the implementers and direct network such as family members. Recently, there has been rising cases of young entrepreneurs who before obtaining grants and funds, are requested at least a quarter of their funds. With these barriers, it is very hard for young entrepreneurs to make it through considering that kind of broken systems.

Again, young people do not have the right network that include key decision makers in their network. As a result of this lack of support from decision makers, most young people don’t get help when they need it most and end up failing because of lack of funds, advocacy, critical partnerships and support from key decision makers in their network.

However, I rally my fellow African youths despite challenges to keep pushing regardless of obstacles and let the future determine it’s self. Keep fighting the good fight of hard work, patience, building systems, innovation, and other critical steps needed to ensure there is a favorable environment for everyone to thrive.

In addition, those who are waiting to start big interventions tomorrow, I would say “Start small but start today”.

For entrepreneurs with start-ups, things change fast when you are an entrepreneur especially if you are starting out with a new product or service that has not been tested yet but they still want to give it a shot regardless of how risky it may be. It is also important that you know your strengths as well as weaknesses so you can build systems around them so you can be successful at what you want to achieve in life whether it be long term or short-term goals.

Again, the world is changing at an exponential rate: There are disruptive innovations happening everywhere you look that will change your business model in ways you never thought of before. “Never be afraid of change because it is inevitable, and if you want to be successful in this world then you must embrace it with open arms." Said Gloria.

Never be afraid of change because it is inevitable, and if you want to be successful in this world then you must embrace it with open arms." -Gloria Kantengwa