KIGALI: One hundred Rwandan women are taking part in a 3-day training programme in Kigali, entitled, “Empowering 100 Women Future Leaders in Hospitality Excellence.”

The training programme was conducted by experts from the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management.

The training, which began on Tuesday, is focusing on excellence in the hospitality industry, with an aim to impart world class skills in tourism and hospitality through capacity development. Focus areas include food and beverage service, hotel front office operations, improving the customer experience, the role of information technology in the hospitality industry, and industry-specific communication skills.

The emphasis will be also placed on the growing importance of the role of women in hospitality and how their inclusion will enable Rwanda to meet its tourism development goals.

The training was made possible through international cooperation between the UAE and Rwanda, via a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two countries foreign ministries on 8th March 2018, coinciding with the International Women’s Day.

The UAE Embassy in Kigali and Rwanda Development Board coordinated technical and logistical support for the programme.

Commenting on the training programme, Hazza Mohammed Falah Kharsan Al Qahtani, UAE Ambassador to Rwanda, said, “The UAE is impressed by the Rwandan Government’s Policy of promoting gender equality and empowering women across all sectors.” The UAE, he said, will support this endeavour in the tourism and hospitality industry, which is a major potential growth area for both job-creation and income-generation for a number of countries across the world, especially Rwanda.

“Rwanda has demonstrated their world-class ability to promote women’s empowerment through achieving the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide. We believe that Rwanda will be able to apply this ability to empower women to the hospitality industry with similar levels of success. The UAE is honoured to play a role in helping Rwanda further develop this capacity, through sharing our own experience in this area, which will ultimately help to increase both the quantity and the quality of tourism to Rwanda,” Al Qahtani added.

WAM