Jabuka Investments Week

11th – 15th September 2023

For the second week of September, we gathered partners and potential partners at our head office in Nyambugete, to the West of Bujumbura for a week of community and capacity building.

What we did

Spent a week gathering our partners and along with other entrepreneurs from the community. The week was made up of various sessions addressing different topics relevant to running a business. We found experts in fields such as banking and the law to help the entrepreneurs understand the various implications of these areas on their business. They went in depth in areas such as financial planning, tax, and business registration.

We also ran sessions on writing business plans, using the business plan as a tracking tool, and finished the week with a business pitching competition.

Why we did it

In the words of Jean de Dieu Bizimana, our CEO: ”[Jabuka Investments] is a private company in the sector of promoting business in Burundi. We want to see a business ecosystem stable and sustainable.”

Our objective as Jabuka Investments is to invest in the missing middle in Burundi, with a focus on the SME sector. We work with high integrity leaders. They come from various backgrounds, and do not necessarily have extensive experience or training in commerce.

Jabuka Investments week was dedicated to equipping them, encouraging them, and fostering a greater sense of community among them.  The challenge of creating an event like this is that some of our partners are in far-flung corners of the country, with churches to lead and homes to run. We were so grateful for them to make time to invest in themselves, their businesses, and their communities by taking part in Jabuka Investment Week.

Faith Driven Entrepreneurs

A session which connecting us to the global movement of Faith Driven Entreprenuers was the annual Faith Driven Entrepreneurs watch-party. We watched inspiring stories from all around the globe of Christian led businesses. A testimony that came out of our group during this event was from one successful local businessman who was about to fire a pregnant woman who worked in one of his businesses. After watching the video of Faith Driven Entrepreneurs, he felt led by the Spirit to give her another chance.  

Meet Gladys

Gladys, an entrepreneur who is a potential partner of Jabuka, gave the following testimony:

“I am in the business of cosmetics, that touches also the sector of agriculture. I am very new in entrepreneurship. I learnt a lot in terms of financial planification and the law aspect, the whole ecosystem of business in Burundi. In addition, that was so important for me, was to be able to be in a group of other Christian entrepreneurs so we can learn and challenge each other in the sector of business in Burundi which is sometimes questionable when you are by yourself. So what was really beneficial was to be with other people that meet the same challenges as I do that want to strive for excellence.”

Check out this video for more information: