A partnership between the government of Rwanda and the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has seen the launch of e-commerce studies in Rwandan universities. The program is part of an agreement under the Alibaba’s Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) initiative signed in 2018.

The program dubbed Global E-commerce Talent (GET) is Africa’s first e-commerce training programme at the university level with the Chinese’s e-commerce giant and will kick off at the African Leadership University (ALU) in Kigali. The launching of the programme in Africa comes in the wake of similar programmes that have been launched in Malaysia and Thailand by the group.

Speaking at the launch, Demilade Oluwasina, Head of Rwanda’s Special Economic Zones and Export Facilitation Department at (RDB) who will also double as programme lead at ALU noted that in partnership with the Alibaba Business School, the university is expected to train 200 students in 2020. As of the launch date, over 150 students had enrolled to take part in the program that will take 9 months.

Under the capacity building component of the 2018 Rwanda-Alibaba deal, Rwandan students have been going to Chinese institutions to study e-commerce since 2019 under the sponsorship of Alibaba.

The programme’s goal is to provide requisite skills to the individuals who are endowed with the responsibility of nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs and making Rwanda an Africa’s e-commerce hub.

Photo courtesy / Google

Article by Jedidah Mwangi

https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/e-commerce-studies-rwandan-universities-launched