For Jeannine Uwiringiyimana, a single mom of two in Nyagatare District, incomes Rwf40,000 a month as soon as meant making tough decisions about which family wants might wait.
A veterinarian by coaching, Uwiringiyimana spent years working for an additional veterinarian in Nyagatare. She paid Rwf20,000 in lease, leaving little for meals, faculty charges and different family bills.
At one level, her eldest son was despatched dwelling from faculty as a result of she couldn’t pay his charges on time.
“I by no means considered quitting that month-to-month wage, however then I heard about KoraLink, which opened up the chance of promoting health-related merchandise in my neighbourhood. That modified my life in a tangible manner,” she stated.
The KoraLink programme is a collaborative partnership between the Mastercard Basis, The Commons Mission Basis (TCP), Africa, Society for Household Well being (SFH) Rwanda and the ICT Chamber. It’s designed to harness the tech-savvy vitality of younger individuals and rework entry to well being services and products of their communities.
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The programme targets financially deprived younger individuals aged 18 to 35, notably ladies and people in rural communities, creating alternatives for the youth who might in any other case battle to seek out formal employment whereas bringing important well being merchandise and digital providers nearer to communities.
Uwiringiyimana, joined KoraLink in September 2025 whereas persevering with her veterinary job, utilizing WhatsApp standing posts, door-to-door visits and phrase of mouth to construct a buyer base.
By January 2026, she had gained sufficient confidence to resign and work full-time as a KoraLink agent.
In her first full month, she earned about Rwf300,000, greater than seven instances her earlier month-to-month wage.
Then got here one other milestone. Uwiringiyimana had lengthy needed to open her personal veterinary pharmacy. By March 2026, she had completed so, utilizing a part of the Rwf800,000 she had saved by KoraLink.
Right this moment, she runs the pharmacy alongside her KoraLink actions, giving her a number of sources of revenue.
“By means of KoraLink, we get these extremely wanted merchandise at a decrease value after which promote them. As brokers, we earn a fee, however from that portion, I’m now producing an revenue of about Rwf30,000 per week,” she stated.
She says the extra revenue has enabled her to pay her kids's faculty charges and family bills whereas saving about Rwf50,000 each month.
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However Uwiringiyimana's story is just one instance of how brokers are utilizing earnings from KoraLink to construct companies past the programme's authentic mannequin.
Dr Richard Gakuba, Government Secretary of The Commons Mission Basis, Africa (TCP Africa), stated the emergence of brokers turning into entrepreneurs is one signal the programme is succeeding in attaining its objective.
“What we’re witnessing right this moment because the programme grows is that KoraLink brokers have gotten entrepreneurs past being gross sales brokers,” he stated.
“They’re utilizing the talents and help from the programme to diversify their revenue, create extensions of the work that earn them extra and, in some circumstances, create jobs for fellow youth of their communities.”
Turning small earnings into companies
In Rwimiyaga Sector, Nyagatare District, Mutoni Divine joined KoraLink after spending time at dwelling together with her baby and with out capital to make use of the tailoring expertise she already possessed.
She started promoting KoraLink merchandise to neighbours and, after about two months, used her earnings to purchase her first stitching machine for Rwf150,000.
At first, she saved the machine at dwelling whereas persevering with to promote well being merchandise and telling clients that she additionally supplied tailoring providers.
As demand grew, she rented area at a buying and selling centre and mixed the 2 companies.
Six months later, she had saved sufficient to purchase a second stitching machine for Rwf135,000. She then educated one other individual to work together with her.
She has since expanded into promoting ladies's clothes and is saving by two saving teams whereas working in the direction of shopping for an electrical stitching machine, increasing her atelier to coach and make use of extra individuals, and ultimately opening a separate store alongside it to promote well being merchandise.
“Earlier than I joined KoraLink, I used to be a keep dwelling mom. Working as a KoraLink Agent has enabled me to kind out my very own issues, store for myself and costume my baby,” Mutoni stated.
Her expertise illustrates a broader sample rising amongst brokers: earnings from promoting well being merchandise are more and more getting used as capital for different actions.
Within the Rwimiyaga centre, Ange Marie Ntirenganya has used her financial savings to construct a cake-making enterprise.
Earlier than becoming a member of KoraLink, she was dwelling together with her sister. She saved Rwf400,000 from her KoraLink earnings and used it to purchase her personal oven.
Though the oven makes use of charcoal, it has allowed her to supply muffins for purchasers in Rwimiyaga and surrounding areas, whether or not it’s for weddings, birthdays and different events.
She says the enterprise has grown to the purpose the place she now saves about Rwf300,000 a month, in mixed earnings from her baking and KoraLink, alongside contributions to the 4 financial savings teams she belongs to.
“By the tip of the month or early subsequent month, I’m shifting to the roadside the place I’m organising my store. It’s at present present process ultimate touches,” she confidently says
For Ntirenganya, KoraLink grew to become a basis for larger monetary independence relatively than an finish in itself. On high of supporting different brokers as a supervisor in her sector, she additionally trains different younger individuals to make muffins and empowers them to be self-employed.
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“I assist different brokers to promote as a manner of encouraging them to be extra concerned,” she says. Two of her purchasers within the Rwimiyaga sector recommended Ntirenganya’s work ethic, amongst different issues, for supplying them on time.
Greater than a gross sales alternative
Agent onboarding covers primary enterprise apply, product information of what they promote, together with sanitary pads, condoms, water air purifier (Sur’Eau), and the way to use the KoraLink Market, the e-commerce platform the place they order inventory and transact.
They start with an interest-free funding of Rwf360,000, disbursed as digital vouchers in installments as they construct their companies. The quantity is step by step repaid, permitting the revolving sustainable fund to help one other group of brokers.
The programme started in Musanze and Nyagatare in August 2025 with about 79 brokers. It has since grown to 2,278 brokers throughout 11 districts, with recruitment ongoing in three extra districts, and is increasing towards all 30 districts in Rwanda.
By 2028, KoraLink goals to contribute to 41,122 direct and oblique jobs, together with 11,762 brokers. About 80 per cent of brokers are anticipated to be ladies and 70 per cent from rural areas.
Dr Richard Gakuba, stated the programme was designed to deal with youth employment whereas additionally bettering entry to important well being merchandise, utilizing know-how.
“After we got down to design this programme with our companions, we needed to deal with youth employment whereas additionally responding to the group problem of last-mile supply, notably for important well being merchandise,” Gakuba stated.
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The programme has additionally created areas the place brokers can affect the way it develops. These embody district coordination conferences, research excursions, a program youth advisory group, and quarterly conferences involving agent-elected supervisors.
The platforms give brokers a chance to lift day-to-day challenges, establish market alternatives, be taught from friends and talk about the route of the programme with companions and native leaders.
Constructing past KoraLink
For some brokers, that help helps them transfer from merely incomes commissions to excited about longer-term monetary independence.
In Nyagasambu Sector, Rwamagana District, Rosine Umuhoza, 30, joined KoraLink after a interval of unemployment. A mom of 1, she started promoting merchandise together with sanitary pads and condoms, and says the revenue has enabled her to pay her baby's faculty charges.
“I used to be a mom who had no job and trusted asking for help on every thing. However now I pays my baby's faculty charges due to KoraLink,” Umuhoza stated. She hopes to extend her capital so she will order extra merchandise and broaden her enterprise.
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In Rwimiyaga, Shakira Mwiza has taken a distinct route. The 25-year-old began by promoting KoraLink merchandise however used income to purchase a pc for Rwf180,000 and broaden into offering digital providers.
The Rwimiyaga Sector administration gave her area to work from its workplaces, permitting her to keep away from the price of renting premises whereas establishing the enterprise.
Mwiza now makes use of the revenue to assist pay her tuition on the College of Lay Adventists of Kigali, travelling to Kigali to check over weekends earlier than returning to Rwimiyaga.
Sam Gatunge, Government Secretary of Rwimiyaga Sector, stated the brokers had been serving to enhance service supply in the neighborhood and help nationwide priorities.
“You’re making certain that persons are ingesting clear water, you’re serving to us to fight teenage pregnancies and forestall STDs.,” he stated.
For Uwiringiyimana, that development has taken her from a Rwf40,000 wage to proudly owning a veterinary pharmacy and mentoring different brokers.
She now supervises 21 KoraLink brokers in her sector, organises peer conferences and helps facilitate financial savings teams.
Because the world marks Worldwide Youth Day this month, the journeys of Uwiringiyimana, Mutoni, Ntirenganya, Umuhoza and Mwiza illustrate what is feasible when younger individuals have the instruments, expertise and help to form their very own livelihoods within the digital period and participate meaningfully within the economic system.
KoraLink's ambition stretches past particular person progress. In 2026, this system plans to broaden into new districts, bringing its mannequin to extra youth throughout Rwanda and facilitating last-mile supply of a rising product portfolio.
It additionally plans to organise brokers into financial savings and funding teams, set up sector-level KoraLink hubs, and proceed teaching and equipping brokers with expertise that widen their pathways into gig work throughout various sectors, the place younger individuals can earn.
