Alibaba to train 22 Rwandans in e-commerce training initiative

Chinese tech company Alibaba’s business school has announce that it will train 22 Rwanda students in a four-year undergraduate programme in international business and cross-border e-commerce. The training kicks off next week.

This follows an announcement on Saturday (7 September) by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group — whose founder Jack Ma stepped down as chairman this week — that its business school had signed a memorandum with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to start the programme.

The programme’s classes kick off next Friday (20 September).

The four-year cross-border e-commerce programme will kick off next week

To help get the training off the ground, the Alibaba Group said it had trained Rwandan educators in the business school’s Global E-commerce Talent- Train the Trainers programme.

A total of 40 Rwandan startup founders have visited Hangzhou, China for training under the the school’s Netpreneur programme and the eFounders Fellowship, which was created in partnership with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

The founders include DMM CEO Clarisse Ibribagiza, Data Systems’ Nadia Uwamahoro and AfricaGen’s Haguma Norbert.

In addition, Alibaba said 12 Rwandan government officials have also been to Alibaba’s headquarters to attend a workshop on how to build and sustain economic growth in the digital era.

‘Great momentum through collaboration with RDB’

Alibaba Vice President of Global Initiatives Brian Wong (pictured above, with Rwanda Development Board CEO Clare Akamanzi and Freshippo senior procurement manager Chen Huifang) said the company has seen “great momentum” through its collaboration with the RDB to provide training for the digital economy.

“We are hoping that through our continuous effort, cross-sector synergy and public-private collaboration will be cultivated through the respective programmes and will continue to drive actions towards the goal of an inclusive digital economy,” added Wong.

Last year Ma spoke in Johannesburg at a special event organised by the Alibaba Business School, Unctad and the Jack Ma Foundation where he announced a new $10-million prize to support African entrepreneurs (see more here).

Read more: Six takeaways from Jack Ma and his speech to African tech entrepreneurs
Read more: Jack Ma challenges Africans to seize opportunities, announces $10m prize
Read more: Meet the African entrepreneurs who took part in Jack Ma’s eFounders Fellowship
Read more: Five things I learnt from Jack Ma and why Africa’s tech future is bright

Featured image, left to right: Alibaba Vice President of Global Initiatives Brian Wong, Rwanda Development Board CEO Clare Akamanzi and Freshippo senior procurement manager Chen Huifang (Alibaba Group)