Building Burundi's Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: MSM Expert Delivers Back-to-Back Training Interventions in Bujumbura

In February 2026, MSM's Alain Nkurikiye delivered two intensive training interventions in Bujumbura as part of the EU-funded BURUDIGI project and the K2K Burundi programme, marking a significant step forward in building Burundi's digital entrepreneurship ecosystem.

From 17 to 19 February, Nkurikiye facilitated a three-day Train-the-Trainers (ToT) on Digital Entrepreneurship, AI and Innovation Hub Management, co-organised by the BURUDIGI Burundian partners: the Burundi Business Incubation Network (BBIN), the Chambre Transversal des Jeunes Entrepreneurs (CTEJBU), and the Oeuvre humanitaire pour la Protection et le Développement de l'Enfant (OPDE).

The training brought together employees and technical partners of the three organisations. This ToT was structured around three main pillars: digital and AI-enabled entrepreneurship fundamentals, building digital companies from survival to builder-type ventures, and Innovation Hub design and sustainability. The ToT equipped institutions with the frameworks and tools necessary to implement digital entrepreneurship into their vocational programmes and incubation activities. Participants left with a shared entrepreneurship pathway, a replicable new business development support model, and a draft Innovation Hub operating framework.

Days later, from 23 to 25 February, Nkurikiye returned to the field for the second Training of Trainers under the K2K Burundi programme, funded by RVO through the Orange Corners Programme, this time at the Université du Lac in Bujumbura. This ToT was designed specifically for university lecturers from five Burundian higher education institutions, with the goal of reframing how entrepreneurship is understood and taught at the tertiary level.

The sessions challenged participants to move beyond survival-oriented curricula and toward an approach that equips students to build scalable, sustainable businesses, and to see their universities as active anchors of local innovation ecosystems. Practical classroom exercises, assignment design workshops, and a live observation of a Bujumbura pitch event brought the training firmly into contact with real entrepreneurship practice on the ground.

Across both interventions, a consistent thread emerged: Burundi's entrepreneurship ecosystem has strong intent and growing institutional appetite, but requires deliberate capacity investment to shift from survival-mode support to structured, builder-oriented development pathways. MSM's engagement through BURUDIGI and K2K is directly contributing to that shift.

The BURUDIGI project “Empowering Burundians with Digital and Entrepreneurial Skills for Current and Future Employment Opportunities” is co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme and implemented in partnership with BBIN, CTEJBU, and OPDE in Burundi, alongside the Digital Learning Hub (Luxembourg) and CFITECH (Belgium). The K2K Burundi programme is funded by RVO through the Orange Corners Programme.