Official Launch of the “50Million African Women Speak Out” Project in Burundi

The Minister was accompanied by the Minister in charge of ICT, Mrs. Marie Chantal NIJIMBERE and the Permanent Secretary to the Minister for East African Community Affairs, Ambassador Jean RIGI. In her speech, Mrs. Imelde Sabushimike indicated that the main objective of the project is to contribute to the economic empowerment of women by creating a very strong network of information exchange among women entrepreneurs, through a platform digital. She added that this network will allow the connection of all the women who will frequent the platform by sharing experience, information and knowledge of the business world, both at the urban level and in the interior of the country and between countries. of the region and of the entire African Continent. Mrs. Imelde Sabushimike, indicated that alongside the agricultural activities carried out by the vast majority of Burundian women, the current Burundian woman has embarked on the economic world to which she was not accustomed in the past, given the Burundian culture. According to the Minister, following the dynamism of the whole world, Burundian women have embarked on various income-generating activities to try to improve their economic situation and contribute, as full citizens of the nation, to the sustainable development of their country. . For Minister Imelde Sabushimike, Burundian women face several challenges, preventing them from achieving their full economic development. These include limited access to factors of production, limited capacity for New Information, Communication and Media Technologies, advanced knowledge in entrepreneurship, level of education, to name but a few. These different challenges make it clear that women need other combined efforts in order to be able to effectively improve their socio-economic situation, she added. Through this project, the Minister indicated that there will be a strengthening of Burundi's integration within the East African Community. The Burundian woman will not only discover, but also and above all enjoy the benefits of the free movement of Goods, People and Labor, Services and Capital as well as the Right of Residence and Establishment in the Countries Partners of the East African Community, and later benefits of the EAC-COMESA and SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area. The launch of this project saw the participation of the Minister in charge of ICT, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry in charge of the East African Community, Women entrepreneurs from Burundi, representatives of Telecommunications Companies in Burundi, representatives of banking institutions and Microfinance, development partners and some senior government officials in Burundi. The launch was preceded by training for Women Entrepreneurs of Burundi on the use of the Platform and their registration to benefit from the benefits of the project, and several of them were registered in the platform at the same time.