The Equity Leaders Program operating under Equity Group Foundation’s (EGF) Education and Leadership Development Pillar has launched in Rwanda. The program has selected 32 top-performing male and female students across different Districts where Equity Bank Rwanda has a branch presence.
The scholars were selected based on the Senior Six National leaving examination results obtained from the National Examination and Schools Inspection Authority (NESA). They will form the first cohort of ELP beneficiaries in Rwanda, bringing the total number of beneficiaries within East Africa to 17,072 since the inception of the program. This includes graduates from Equity’s bespoke secondary school scholarship program, Wings to Fly.
The 32 scholars are set to join Equity Bank for a 3 months paid internship program where each scholar will get a monthly stipend and experience on-the-job training and mentorship within various departments. Outside the 3 month paid internship period, the mentorship and coaching engagement with the scholars will be maintained for the period they are in university.
Over 700 of ELP scholars have completed their global education in leading universities like Yale, Harvard, MIT, Science Po, Columbia among others. Most have proceeded to securing employment and senior positions in top companies such as a Vice President at Bain Capital, Director of Government Affairs at Astra Zeneca, Senior Consultant at Boston Consulting Group, Software Engineer at Bloomberg just to name a few. They continue to occupy senior leadership positions upon their return to the continent.
Speaking during the official ELP launch in Rwanda, Equity Group Holdings MD and CEO, and Executive Chairman of the Equity Group Foundation Dr. James Mwangi stated, “Over the last three decades, Equity Group has recognized the importance of investing in human capital. In Kenya and through our Equity Leaders Program (ELP), the Group has identified close to 7,000 of the most gifted boys and girls who have graduated secondary school and nurtured them through paid internship work experience, coaching and mentorship.”
In addition to the skills training, ELP aims to empower young academically gifted scholars through mentorship and leadership development and is also keen on spurring personal and professional development, creativity, innovation, and community engagement amongst the scholars thus moulding them into forward-thinking young professionals with an ethical focus on giving back to their communities.