Assessing rural Rwandan youth's access to finance

Vision Fund Rwanda (VFR) commissioned Genesis to do a market assessment of youth-targeted financial services in rural Rwanda.

The goal was to develop financial products aimed at catalysing youth participation in entrepreneurship, particularly in agriculture and tourism in that country. Genesis conducted an in-country assessment of government and donor-led youth vocational programmes and access to finance opportunities available to rural youth graduates of these programmes.

In addition, Genesis assessed technical and vocational training colleges’ curricula to ascertain their relevance to the prevailing market conditions in Rwanda. This data was then used to highlight gaps in the vocational training programmes, and challenges presented to young people trying to access finance to start or expand businesses.

Genesis provided recommendations on vocational skills development models and illustrative youth friendly financial products that VFR and its partners could develop to reach the rural youth at scale across Rwanda.