C&H Garments Company owned by Chinese nationals, Helen Hai and Candy Ma is training Rwandan youth in manufacturing garments in Kigali.
This training of 80 students comes after the Government of Rwanda through Rwanda Development Board (RDB) signed a Memorandum of Agreement with C&H Garments Company in July 2014.
The Company has invested in automatic computerized sowing machines with a capacity of training 200 workers at start-up.
According to Malou Jontilano the General Manager of C& H Garments Ltd, the main focus is on training sowers how to make garments for exports.
She added that this training is intended to last three months— first month of familiarization with the automatic computerized machines, sowing, second month of producing quality garments later export quality standard and the third month on quality and speed.
“We care much about quality, our goal in Rwanda is to export garments to the USA and Europe and leave about 20% of our production for the local market,” said Jontilano.
“There is a possibility of having the number of workers increased between 300 and 400 due to other activities in cutting, finishing, packaging and warehouse.”
The government through RDB has already provided the first grant installment of $60,000 to facilitate the investor in training and the Ministry of Education through WDA will also give $180,000 in the same endeavor.
The training grant that was committed to the investor by the Government of Rwanda amounts to $240,000.
One of the trainees Christelle Nyirahabimana 22, a high school graduate who studied Mathematics and economics said her target is to acquire skills and look for all means to become self employed.
Nyirahabimana added, “The three weeks of training have left me with a clear hope that through hands on training I will overcome my past economic challenges”.
The objective of these trainings is to build capacities of unemployed Rwandan youth and women in providing them with hands on practical skills on manufacturing of garments in Rwanda for both domestic consumptions and export, establishing garment and textile production centers and creating more jobs.