StArfrica – Startup Germany-Africa

“This is a common greeting in Kinyarwanda and means something like “Good afternoon, how are you doing?” It’s almost two months since I have been living in Rwanda now and I have recently started to feel that I have “arrived“. The past weeks have been incredibly stressful and quite hectic – but at the same time, I was fulfilling tasks and executing things I have been wanting to do in my profession for a long time…”

It was a great pleasure for us to present our StArfrica project on the “Ruanda-Tag 2020” which was organized by the Ministry of the Interior Rhineland-Palatinate, the University of Applied Sciences Bingen and the Partnership Rhineland-Palatinate / Rwanda (Jumelage). It was a day full of a great spirit and people…

After the unpredictable Rwandan rain crashed our plans for performing the StArfrica expert talk at the rooftop of the Westerwelle Startup Haus Kigali, we had to relocate it into the main rooms of the Westerwelle Haus. The stress was worth it – it was an amazing StArfrica expert event at the Westerwelle Startup Haus together with around 40 guests…

“I have been with StArfrica since the project started and my task is to create the blog and the website with WordPress. As I am only in my second semester of study, I would like to use the work in the project to gain experience…”

“Since the beginning of July I have been working as a research assistant in the team and am responsible for social media management. For one year I have already been managing the social media of a social business called “Aventurin Waste”, so I was able to bring along my own experience in this field…”

“Since the beginning of July I have been a research assistant to the team. I am responsible for the blog and since I have never worked in this field before, I hope to gain new experiences and learn more about entrepreneurship and founding through StArfrica…”

That moment when you get off the airplane and you breathe in the Rwandan air – always a bit humid, never too cold and somehow a bit smoky – the feeling of home returns almost immediately – Rwanda, here I come!

It has already been two weeks since I arrived and a lot has been going on for me in my new role as the Project lead of StArfrica in Rwanda since…

I hope that in four years we will have achieved the indicators we have set. But I really do see it as a pilot project and would therefore like to see it extended to other African countries and that it somehow manages to create a cluster in Rwanda, on the one hand with this bridge character and the connection to Germany, on the other hand with the local economy…

I was involved from the beginning when we at ZIFET decided to develop activities in Rwanda. We chose Africa, an exciting and promising continent with great potential. There were already contacts to Rwanda through previous activities together with the Rwanda Center, so the choice of Rwanda as a partner country in the application was obvious. Establishing “Business Start-Up from Science” at the University of Rwanda is a very exciting and challenging project for me, which I am happy to accompany with my experience…