Yasipi Casmir UWIHIRWE, a science student in Senior 6 doing MPC (Maths Physics and Computer Science) at Ecole Secondaire Kanombe won the Youth Entrepreneurship Start Ups (YES) award, 2nd Edition, winning 150,000Rwf prize money and a brand new smartphone courtesy of All Trust Consult ; the official organisers of the awards.

To the headmistress of ESK, Mrs TUMUKUNDE L. MONICA, this feat is an inspiration to many students especially those pursuing sciences. “The school is so proud of Yasipi for the award she won. Fellow students too will get inspired and strive to excel, as our motto states”.

Her winning project is called “Idea network”, designed to tackle the challenge of unemployment, especially among the youth.

It aims to address the three main causes of unemployment, namely ; lack of skills and knowledge to start-up, lack of information and communication and lack of start up capital.

““Idea network” is a tool with a solution to the key challenges of unemployment. It works as a linkage between ; the custodians of business information, the financiers of business opportunities and the seekers of such opportunities, i.e. the youth,” she said.

Feasible business plans or ideas will be listed on the network for financiers to consider funding them.

To access the app, one will need to subscribe by paying a small amount. That is how Yasipi hopes to make money from the app.

She’s the innovator and owner of the “idea network” concept. But to develop the application to a level where she can start making money out of it, she is using IT experts in coding and programming, expected to be completed soon.