Challenges and barriers facing entrepreneurship development through public investment: a case of millennium development villages project in Rwanda – Mayange

Abstract

Many developing countries (LDCs) have ambitious plans of development but they hardly achieve them due to lack of entrepreneurial or business knowledge among their people. This is because various studies have revealed that, entrepreneurship is an important vehicle for economic growth and development which all countries should aim at LDCs being unexceptional. In Rwanda’s context, the country regards entrepreneurship as a powerful tool for both economic growth and job creation. With this regard, the government of Rwanda (GoR) through the Ministry of Commerce and Trade has created various conditions to facilitate entrepreneurship development though no tremendous results have been realized. The study problem is hence, entrepreneurship development and sustainability is still constrained despite the improved infrastructure the government has invested. The researcher observed this problem and conducted a qualitative study to find out what might be needed for Rwanda to shift from where it is today to where it wants to be in terms of entrepreneurship development. The major objective of this study is to figure out the challenges and barriers hindering Mayange MVP to maximize its entrepreneurship sustainability despite the public investment made by government and this led to other specific objectives like to find out whether public investment is a crucial factor in fostering entrepreneurship development in Mayange MVP, to define the nature of entrepreneurial activities funded through public investments in Mayange Millennium Village Project and to examine the prevailing environmental conditions, challenges and barriers encountered by entrepreneurs in Mayange MVP thus hindering the progress of their businesses. The methodology applied by the researcher to carry out his research was the one of case study and convenience sampling during sample selection. The chosen sample comprised of 30 entrepreneurs selected from 6 cooperatives out 20 found in Mayange MVP by September 2010. The primary data was collected by means of questionnaires addressed to the entrepreneurs whereas the secondary data was obtained from the documentation about the project. The findings of this study were that entrepreneurship development in Mayange MVP was affected by the problems of Lack of ready market availability for products, poor or inaccessibility to financial services, insufficient capacity building, poor entrepreneur culture, poor technology and unfavourable government policies, which were regarded as environmental conditions to enhance entrepreneurship development. The study being a qualitative one, when analyzing its data, descriptive statistics was used and the analysis revealed that, availability of conducive environment was very crucial to complement the existing physical infrastructure invested by government in conjunction with development partners if entrepreneurship is to be developed. After the findings and analysis of the data, some recommendations for developing sustainable entrepreneurship were formulated for the project coordination office, government, developing partners and all stakeholders. Last but not least, proposals for further research were also made in terms of developing sustainable entrepreneurship for economic growth and development.