The University of Kigali held a one-day Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubation Workshop for its Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) 2023-COHORT on Thursday, March 31, 2023. The workshop hosted by the UoK Graduate School was facilitated by Dr. KWENA Ronald, the Dean with the Deputy Ambassador of Israel in Rwanda, H.E. Mr. Yossi Gadamo as Keynote Speaker. In his opening remarks, H.E. Mr. Gadamo noted that Israel and Rwanda share a similar history and challenges. He observed that innovation from Israel’s perspective was necessitated by the challenges faced such as scarce resources, security challenges and the geographical location of Israel, adding that as a matter of fact, “the only resource Israel had, were its people”.
H.E. Gadamo challenged the EMBA students to always look for solutions both from technological and non-technological perspectives for problems facing the society. He referred the students to the situation where Israel had a water problem, yet they were neighboring an ocean. He shared that an innovative solution to desalinate the ocean water was adopted and supplied the population with clean water. The workshop emphasized the ecosystem of innovation which named government, academia and private sector among the actors.
The incubation session divided the students into groups and required them to identify a problem, conduct a research and develop an innovative solution. Among the problems identified is the lack of access to clean water in Africa due to contamination. The students were able to develop innovative solutions backed by research and presented their results. The Keynote Speaker noted that the solutions were very innovative both technologically and non-technologically. On their part, the students appreciated the depth of knowledge gained, insights and ideas developed. “the knowledge gained is immeasurable” one of the participants noted.
Among the attendees, were Dr. KWENA Ronald, the Dean of the Graduate School and a Project Management expert, Professor Madichie Nnamdi, a Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship and Dr. Rusibana Claude, the Director of Academic Programmes and an Accounting and Finance expert. On his part, Professor Madichie Nnamdi emphasized that an innovation ecosystem should be looked at as a system that all actors must be incorporated.
The Dean highlighted the fact that the University of Kigali was in the process of incorporation capstone projects in its curricula and the workshop served as a stepping stone. “We are encouraging our students to develop solutions for the problems that the society is facing, that can also be commercialized,” Dr. Kwena pointed out. The Director of Academic Programmes, Dr. Rusibana Claude added that the University of Kigali was incorporating more industry practitioners to facilitate practical learning experiences.
In his closing remarks, The Deputy Ambassador of Israel in Rwanda, H.E. Mr. Yossi Gadamo encouraged the students to be the champions of innovation and develop solutions that can be commercialized for economic value.