Business Education in Kigali
Team: Jake Bennett '06, Tricia Morente '07
Areas: Strategic Plan Development
Project Partners: World Bank (Public Sector Reform & Capacity Building Africa Region), International Finance Corporation’s Global Business School Network (GBSN)
The School of Finance and Banking (SFB) in Rwanda was created in 2002 and the first class of 126 business students was admitted in 2003. The school’s goal is to become a center of excellence in offering key business skills—particularly accounting, banking, and finance—in order to contribute to Rwanda’s private sector development.
Rwanda’s Human Resource and Institutional Capacity Development Agency (HIDA) is tasked with developing Rwanda’s capacity, both from a human resource and financial perspective. In this role, it works closely with the SFB in strengthening Rwanda’s public sector.
The Columbia team of MBA consultants worked with both the SFB and Rwanda’s HIDA. Over their winter recess, the Columbia team traveled to Kigali, Rwanda to develop key strategic initiatives for SFB around the goals of: reaching self-sustainability; developing certification programs in partnership with the Rwandan Finance Ministry; and building student partnerships with international business programs.
Helping the SFB Reach Self-Sustainability
As part of its long-term strategy, the SFB aims to decrease reliance on government funding, thus becoming self-sustainable in running school operations. Hand-in-hand is the additional goal of decreasing the tuition fee burden on each student, enabling more students to enroll for an MBA degree.
Through interviews with SFB staff, project stakeholders, and analysis of SFB’s financial reports, the Columbia MBA team analyzed current sources and uses of funds, as well as identified alternative revenue-generating, cost-cutting and efficiency-raising opportunities. The team performed a gap analysis, which identified key areas upon which to build (see diagram below). The final deliverable of this workstream was a self-sustainability business plan.
Developing Certification Programs in Partnership with the Rwandan Finance Ministry
The Government of Rwanda views the SFB as an important partner in its capacity building. As part of this initiative, the Rwandan Finance Ministry is looking to the SFB to provide courses to train accountants (especially public sector accountants), auditors and specialists in procurement. While the SFB has many strengths, it also needs a partner to help fill its capacity gaps in providing this training.
The Columbia team of MBA students worked with HIDA and the SFB to identify key skills and capabilities to provide relevant training and courses. Through interviews with SFB staff, the team conducted a needs assessment to procure an institutional partner for the SFB. The final deliverable was the creation of a Terms of Reference (TOR) for a partnership institution to work with the SFB in developing and conducting training and courses.
Building Student Relationships with International Business Programs
Finally, the Columbia MBA students shared best practices of U.S. business schools and mapped out ways in which a partnership between both schools can continue through student initiatives (for example with summer internships and MIDI projects). “One of the best parts about the project was talking to Rwandan students at the business school and hearing their insights,” said Tricia Morente. “There’s so much we can learn from each other.”
The team's travel costs were supported by the Social Enterprise Program through its International Development Consulting Project Travel Fund.
