Inside USD 250,000 ACEESD’s Incubation Center Project

15-06-2020

The African Center of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development (ACEESD) has won a grant worth USD 250,000 to establish an Incubation Centre. The new facility will bridge the gap between academia and industry by tailoring African university graduates as well as research data to industrial needs in current market demands.

The four- year World Bank funded project will provide business coaching and training through boot camps, outsource seed funding for startups, support prototype business commencement and help students to network with industry practitioners, funders , experts and business communities.

Pascal Nyiringango, head of the Incubation Center revealed that it will provide mentorship and coaching to potential business ideas.

“We will incubate new business ideas for a period of 6 months which can be extended to 12 months. During this period the center will offer varied expertise through our international partners, supporting in developing prototype and market validation”, he said.

The Center plans to conduct business models for exhibition during the incubation period, targeting needs for energy companies. The goal is to work out new models to ensure future success and networking between our incubation beneficiaries, CEOs, and funders.

Nyiringango further noted that the Centre will offer technical scientific studies and research to energy companies who need to scale up their businesses and help small energy companies who are at the start up stage for acceleration.

So far 40 innovative business ideas in energy have been submitted to the Incubation Centre for various kinds of support.

A master student in ACEESD Laboratory

For a business idea to get support from the Incubation Centre, it might belong to an individual, a company or jointly developed and implemented with identifiable partners, business associates, or individuals with shared dreams and a journey agreeable. They might be responding to identified problems from the community while contributing to the country development priorities. The business idea should also clearly demonstrate its sustainability and scalability among other criteria.

Despite close collaboration between academia and Industry, companies and small businesses in Africa face challenges to meet the most competitive market demands because of globalization. Therefore industry needs a continuous invention and creativity through applicable innovation approaches. There is no doubt that this Incubation Centre will help Rwanda and the region at large to create employment through innovation and creativity.

Jean Damascène NIYITEGEKA
Communication & Marketing Specialist