IOM Builds Business Development, Management Capacity of Rwandan Returnees

GENEVA, Switzerland, January 28, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- IOM is now providing business coaching and mentoring skills to 1,442 Rwandan returnees in a programme that seeks to train both employees and the self-employed.

The programme, now on its fifth month, is targeting 10 districts across the country and will be completed in March 2014.

IOM has already dispatched 25 business coaches to each of the 10 target districts: Gisagara, Huye, Karongi, Musanze, Nyabihu, Nyamagabe, Nyamasheke, Nyaruguru, Rubavu and Rutsiro. They will organize sessions to share business skills and help the trainees develop group or individual business plans in the coming months.

With financial support from the Government of Japan and in collaboration with Rwanda's Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (MIDIMAR), IOM is assisting the returnees, mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, through skills training, livestock or housing assistance.

Most of the returnees opted for training in skills including tailoring, mechanical engineering, welding, carpentry, masonry, hairdressing or knitting.

By the end of the programme in March, IOM estimates that over 70 percent of the beneficiaries will have embarked on some kind of income generation venture.