On the 14th of September in partnership with the Rwandan Embassy and Finnpartnership, Hills connect had the pleasure to organise and implement a successful Business forum which brought together more than 100 Finnish and Rwandan organisations from the education, healthcare and IT sectors. The participants had the chance to discuss business opportunities and meet potential partners. The event was very well received and is a strong continuation to the ongoing collaborations between Finnish and Rwandan organisations.
At the beginning of the event, we had the honour to receive opening remarks from the Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to Nordic Countries, H.E. Dr. Diane Gashumba, Ms. Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, Deputy Director General, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and Hon. Claudette Irere, Minister of State for Education, Republic of Rwanda
Some organizations that participated in the event had speakers speak to us and explain what they do and what they bring to the Finnish-Rwandan collaboration. Ms. Chantal Rukeeba Atukunda gave an interesting presentation on Rwanda as an investment opportunity, explaining how safe and easy it is for investors coming from all over the world and in particular Finland, and also walked us through the registration process of a new business. We also had an honour of hearing from MR. Jens Glasö the CEO of SPENN as he introduced us to SPENN’s full-service mobile financial platform enabling users to manage their deposits, spending and savings accounts all in one place, P2P money transfer and value-added services, as well as point-of-sales, marketplace and payment solutions for businesses and merchants. And as SPENN is in partnership with I&M bank in Rwanda that would make it easy for an investor residing in Finland to operate financially as if they were there themselves. We also had from Ms. Fionah Kamikazi, Head of Marketing & Communications, I&M Bank and she walked us through the possibility of opening your own or business bank account in I&M bank Rwanda and how you can take care of your banking from even miles away.
As the forum kept on, we also had the honor of giving our own presentation about Hills Connect Oy, what we do, how we operate, what we are working on, and how any business that wants to work with us can proceed with the projects in the future. And the presentation was given by our Managing Director, MR. Innocent Rutebuka. Our partners in organising the Forum Finnpartnership, also gave a presentation about their business and it was presented by Ms. Elsa Nyman the program officer.
From Ms. Marjukka Holopainen-Rainio, We also got to hear about Business Finland services as their Senior Advisor, Developing Markets Platform. Mr. Harri Mansikkamäki, as a delegate for International Business Development, Gofore Oyj also got to enlighten us more on the Finnish companies sector in ICT. We also got an overview of the Finnish companies sector in the sector of Education from Ms. Nina Kärki, the Customer Relationship Manager at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.
During the event there was also signing Ceremony of MoUs by Finest Bay, Embassy of Rwanda, CleanTech Region Impact Group Finest Future and the Catholic University of Rwanda. As well as coffee tasting of all the finest different coffee in Rwanda
Mr. Markus Silfverberg, the Founder of Block Solutions Oy, gave a presentation on their experience as a Finnish company already working in Rwanda. The night came to an end with closing remarks from Hon. Claudette Irere, the Minister of State for Education in the Republic of Rwanda.
It was such an honor to be on the organizing team of such an esteemed event and also get to host all the impressive business and government organisations that accepted our invitation and hope to work with each one of them in the future.
