Rock Global Consulting

Raoul Ngendahayo strikes you right away as a well-traveled executive, and it’s no coincidence. Having grown up in Burundi, Raoul lived in Kenya and Tanzania, was educated in engineering in the United States, and worked for Heineken in Burundi. He was trained in Total Productive management (Six Sigma), and his international perspective and focus on quality were key capabilities that he brought to his role as Operations Director to partner with the founders of Rock Global Consulting, Patrick Kabagema and Johnny Kayihura. 

One of the pillars of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 is ICT, and this is precisely where Rock Global Consulting (RGC) has placed its focus. RGC provides IT consulting and is certified in Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco solutions and provides high-end technical services in the fast-growing ICT industry in Rwanda. RCG was recognized as Microsoft’s Rookie Partner of the Year for Eastern and Southern Africa for the year 2009.

RCG provides both hardware and software services, and solutions include networking, security, and disaster recovery. The firm has clients in the telecom, financial services, public, and manufacturing sectors.

RCG has been experiencing high growth since its founding four years ago, and like all companies in expansion mode, this can introduce challenges as well as opportunities. RCG is competing for talent in Rwanda, looking specifically for engineers with a minimum of 2-3 years experience. This means that sometimes RCG needs to recruit from Kenya to get the talent they need.

With a new national data center opening in Rwanda at the end of 2010, there are opportunities to introduce the concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) or Cloud Computing to Rwandan businesses. This is a popular low-cost way for companies in the United States to get access to sophisticated software applications at a fraction of the cost by paying a monthly “rental” charge instead of a full on-site implementation, and RGC is looking closely at introducing this to Rwanda.

With Rwanda’s full engagement in the East Africa Community, RGC sees their market opportunity as the 130 million citizens across the five participating countries. There is strong Rwandan government support for companies like RGC to export their services and take advantage of this large business market.

ICT is critical to meeting the communication, education, health, and business aspirations of Rwanda, and Rock Global Consulting is well-positioned to meet that need.