Rwanda: 4,000 to Attend Jua Kali

Source from:  East African Business Week (Kampala) 10 August 2008 08/13/2008

About 4,000 visitors are expected at the Kigali Jua Kali exhibition from November 27 to December 7. To support the preparations, the British American Tobacco (BAT) last week donated US$80,000 to the organisers. "By formalising the Jua Kali channel, we will be able to take them out of the informal sector and help them to join the formal sector," Mr. Jean Patrick Habyarimana, Corporate Affairs manager BAT Rwanda said at the function to hand over the cheque. The Jua Kali- Small and Medium Enterprises sector emerged in the eighties in Kenya, when the formal economy could not absorb all the new entrants in the labour market. In order to generate some income for survival, those with skilled and semi skilled labour, started their own small and micro enterprises to offer goods at lower prices. In 1989, BAT Kenya, in partnership with the government there mooted the concept of Jua Kali Exhibitions in Kenya. The exhibitions started at the district level then culminated to a grand finale National Exhibition in Nairobi in 1998. The Jua Kali (employs about 10 million people in the region) exhibitions were integrated into the East African Community six years ago. Enditem