BRAC Rwanda launched microfinance in 2019, and then expanded programming with youth empowerment, ultra-poor graduation, and climate initiatives in 2023.

The Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women in Partnership with BRAC (AIM) program in Rwanda is equipping 63,000 adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) with age-appropriate entrepreneurship, employability, and life-skills training, as well as the tools to start and scale their own businesses. The five-year program will operate across seven African countries and apply BRAC’s globally recognized, evidence-based approaches using microfinance, youth empowerment, agriculture, and skills development to improve lives and livelihoods.

We provide financial services responsibly, with a particular focus on women living in poverty who would otherwise be excluded from formal financial systems, to create self-employment opportunities, build financial resilience, and promote women’s entrepreneurial spirit. Our range of services places clients’ well-being at the center. Our microfinance branches, which opened operations only five years ago, now reach clients in over 35 branches nationwide.

Our Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) is a globally recognized solution that offers holistic support to enable people to chart a pathway out of extreme poverty. Through UPGI, we provide technical assistance to the Government of Rwanda to streamline the Graduation approach throughout the country, with staff embedded in the ministries. We identify good practices for designing and implementing government-led graduation programs and integrate our approach into existing policies and programs with civil society and local communities to sustain local efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.

We combine social empowerment, economic empowerment, and education to enable young people to reach their full potential. Our adolescent clubs are safe spaces targeting girls who have dropped out of school and are at risk of early marriage or pregnancy. They access life skills, financial literacy, linkages to vocational education, and adult learning.