From Locally Made Toys to Drone Photography: Akilah Students Pitch Their Best Business Ideas
In November, Akilah students from all diploma programs competed in the Business Idea Pitch Competition.
Innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit are alive and well at Akilah. That was clear after our most recent Business Idea Pitch Competition, which took place on November 23. During the competition, students from all three of Akilah’s diploma programs presented their business ideas to a panel of judges.
Drone technology for capturing events, locally made toothpicks, new procedures for waste collection, up-cycled shoes, and toys to stimulate children’s curiosity were just some of the business ideas presented during this year’s competition.
This year’s business ideas included up-cycled shoes, toy animals, and drone footage for security and event photography.
Students competed in four categories — Best Innovation for Small Businesses, Best Disruptive Innovation, Best Collaboration of Majors, Social Entrepreneurship, and Audience’s Choice — and were judged by fellow students from the Business Management and Entrepreneurship program.
“Imagine using drones to take photos and video at your wedding — you can get shots that would not be possible with normal cameras,” said Digne Umwaliimwase, who studies Information Systems and is in her first year at Akilah. Digne already has one drone and is looking for funding for one more so she can get her drone business up and running. The business would provide both security footage and events photography for her customers.
Toys win big
The event’s big winner was Germaine Ukwishyaka, a first-year Business Management & Entrepreneurship student at Akilah. Germaine and her toy company, DG Toys, took home two prizes: Best Innovation for Small Businesses as well at Audience’s Choice for best pitch and idea.
Germaine Ukwishyaka, right, and her business parter won two awards for their idea to produce toys from locally sourced fabric.
Germaine and her business partner design and produce toys shaped like animals and people using local material. They hope to contribute to early-childhood learning by creating stimulating, fun toys in Rwanda.
Overwhelmed with joy after her two awards, Germaine explained the social mission behind her idea: “I’m happy to show the impact our business can bring to society. To build a strong society, you have to start at the foundation — with our children. Through our toys, we want to give basic knowledge to kids — make them learn about animals and be curious. Our next plan is to install devices so the toys can speak and engage even more with children — my partner studied computer science so she is helping me with that.”
In-house incubation
Germaine is part of Akilah’s in-house Business Incubation Center, where students from all diploma programs receive workspace and guidance from Akilah instructors and external mentors to advance their business ideas.
“I’m happy to show the impact our business can bring to society. To build a strong society, you have to start at the foundation — with our children.”
“The Business Incubation Center helps us develop our ideas and add layers of innovation to our business so customers will be attracted to our products. For instance, we did market research, and we could see that children in Rwanda need more teaching aids, especially when they are in nursery school. Visual teaching aids can help them learn faster and ensure an effective learning process — and that’s what we want our products to support.”
Germaine and her fellow pitch competitors will return to the Business Incubation Center to continue working on their ideas, full of encouragement and new ideas from the competition.