COMESA-LLPI Conducted Cluster Management Training for SMEs and Clusters/Cooperatives involved in footwear and leather goods manufacturing. The 36 SMEs were drawn from different districts of Rwanda. The workshop was conducted for two days (September 2-3, 2013) at SCOLA Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. The workshop was officially, opened by Celestin KABARA, Innovation and Technology Support Senior Officer, Trade and Manufacturing Department of Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
The objectives of the workshop was:
- Train Footwear and leather goods cooperatives leadership in excellence cluster management;
- Develop a an excellence cluster management manual for the cooperative through a participatory process;
- Design a strategic framework for Cooperatives to improve their performance through collaboration in procurement and marketing.
The workshop was participatory and this helped SMEs to identify their challenges and also solutions that would help to improve the performance of their enterprises.
At the end of the workshop a manual were developed, bound and distributed to all the participants. In order to avoid the language barrier of communication, the manual was prepared in two languages (English and Kinyarwanda). The manual contains visions and missions of clusters/cooperatives, SWOT analysis of Clusters/Cooperatives, discussion results on the leather value chain, and recommendations that are to be done in the future.
The participants were also demonstrated using data and pictures, which were generated from interviews, which were held with some of the participants early in 2013. This boosted the moral of the SMEs as they were now part of the global market chain throught e-commerce. Those participants whose products are not available on the portal were very eager to see their product on the LLPI Virtual Exhibition and provide their detail on the forms given.
During the workshop, invited representatives from Equity Bank explained about the services that the bank is providing and the possibilities of getting loan from the bank. And at the end of the session about 15 workshop participants opened Equity Bank accounts.
Delegates from a non-governmental organization called Grow Movement, who are working on enhancing entrepreneurial innovation in least developed countries through knowledge transfer, were invited to share their services with SMEs through mentorship.
The objective of inviting Equity Bank and Grow Movement was aimed at strengthening the clustering concept.
At the end of the workshop participants were handed over Certificates for their successful completion of the workshop. The workshop was facilitated by two COMESA-LLPI Staff members: Mr. Nickolas Mudungwe (Cluster Coordinator) and Mr. Awlachew Sintie (Information System Expert).
