RDB rewards top 100 companies

Officials present the winners of the Top-100 awards. (Internet photo)

Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has recognized the top 100 mid-size companies in the country. The awards are organized jointly with the ministry of trade and commerce for the second time.

The awards are a result of a survey conducted to identify Rwanda’s top 100 fastest growing medium sized companies that have demonstrated business excellence.RDB seeks to highlight the country’s most successful entrepreneurship stories.

A Top-100 company is one that ranks ahead of its peers in terms of revenue growth and returns to shareholders. This is a company that is also likely to have succeeded in progressively growing its market position in the industry in which it operates.

Talking about the outcome of the top 100 SME’ s survey, Vivian Kayitesi, head of promotion and implementation said,” RDB has felt the need to partner again in this good cause because there is a need to focus on the SME’s (small and medium enterprises).”

The processes for this year’s awards started in July and had more than 280 companies participate compared to last year’s 170 companies. The awards also recognized the best performing companies in the IT, construction, transport and hospital sectors. There were also awards for notable special categories such as the woman entrepreneur of the year and the youngest entrepreneur.

For a company to be earmarked for these prestigious awards a company should have a turnover between Frw 50 million and Frw 6 billion, a three-year audited financial track record, is not listed on the stock exchange and is not a financial firm.

Rankings are determined by the average ratio from revenue growth of three years, return on equity of three years and the current ratio for the most recent financial year.

Revenue growth, return on equity and liquidity thresholds are however set each year to ensure that the final list only includes profitable companies that have demonstrated appreciable top line growth and companies that do not show any obvious signs of financial distress at the end of the latest financial year.

It was noted in the survey that 80% of the businesses that participated in the survey are fully Rwandan owned and a majority are young (aged between five and ten years). Four in every ten businesses that participated in the survey produce for the local market with only half of these planning to expand to other countries within the East African community.

It was also noted that a majority of these companies have no additional branches other than their main office.

Hospitality and entertainment

The hospitality and entertainment sector contributed the largest number of this year’s participants, with 16%, followed by the manufacturing sector with 14%.The real estate sector had no participants.

A majority of the businesses said their key motivator for setting up the business was to fill a market gap, with the least common motivator being passion and interest in the field of set up.

Overall, the business confidence index for the current economic situation has improved from 64 to 69. However, there is a significant drop in future expectations on the economy in general and specifically in own sector situations.

The real estate/property sector recorded the highest business confidence index of 75, followed by professional services at 73.9. Art and design however, recorded the lowest business confidence index at 41.7 points.

It was also notable that 66% of this year’s participants started their businesses from their own money as a source of capital, compared to last year’s 69%. Companies that used bank loans as startup capital increased from 27% last year to 36% this year.

Despite the great growth in the different categories most businesses indicated that they would like to know more about the market structure and taxation policies in the rest of the East African countries.

Ambassador Claver Gatete, the Minister of Finance, noted that such initiatives boost the confidence in the economic sector of the country and help it move towards its vision of 2020.

Club 101

Overall, Smart Cleaning was recognized as the best mid-size company in the country, followed by Vision Business Company Limited and Monsoon Trading Rwanda Limited in the second and third positions.

Other notable award winners on the night were AFTEC IT Limited in the IT sector, Establishment Kalimbain the transport sector, Chiyang Hotels in the hospitality sector, Havuga holdings in the agricultural sector, and Kigali Medical Imaging and Supply Center in the health sector.

Immaculate Kayitesi was singled out for the woman entrepreneurial award, as was Dacilza Uwera for the youngest entrepreneur award.

Businesses that were recently awarded the Top 100 awards will, starting next year, be in contention for new prestigious Club 101 awards.

The Top 100 and Club 101 awards are also held in other East African countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

RDB rewards top 100 companies