On 2nd November 2023, the African Centre of Excellence in Internet of Things hosted the Business Networking Event as a part of the Kobe-Kigali ICT Business Initiative Project under the JICA Partnership Program.

During this event, participants who were ICT engineers/trainers, companies, startups and entrepreneurs were provided with the opportunity to network with Rwanda/Japanese companies, startups and entrepreneurs.

In his introductory remarks, the Centre Director Prof. Damien Hanyurwimfura, who spoke on behalf of the Principal of College of Science and Technology commended the existing collaboration between University of Rwanda, Kobe Institute of Computing(KIC), Kobe City Government and JICA especially in harnessing ICT in education. He thanked JICA, KIC, CDC for supporting the project which benefited Rwandans and the region.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Kohei OHATA, Director General, Economy and Tourism Bureau, Kobe City Government (Kobe) commended the achievement of the project where thanked all partners and collaborators that have supported the successfulness of the projects.

ACEIoT held the second batch of trainees under the JICA Partnership Program who completed their training in August 2023.. During this event, some of the trainees got the opportunity to pitch their projects and got feedback from participants to finetune their projects.

The event was characterized by pitching by Japanese companies and one Rwandan company and presentations by the representatives of the 2nd batch of trainees at University of Rwanda under JICA Partnership Program and group discussions where clarification of presentations were provided.

Ready to Bloom and AVAD K. K. are the two Japanese companies that pitched their business while Rwanda companies were represented by Nyereka Tech.

This event was co-hosted by Kobe Institute of Computing and C. D. C. International from the Joint Venture Group of JICA Partnership Program “Kobe-Kigali ICT Business Initiative”, Kobe City, and University of Rwanda.

It was a hybrid event which was be attended by different people from JICA Rwanda and Japan including - Mr. Kohei Ohata, Director General, Economy and Tourism Bureau, Kobe City Government

Mr. Toshiyuki Nakamura, Special Advisor to JICA President, JICA Rwanda, Tomoyuki Naito, Project Manager