Entrepreneurship as a Career
Senior 4 · Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship as a Career
Lesson 3 of 4
25 min
Three cousins finished S6 in the same year. Gisa took a permanent job as a bank teller in Kigali: a monthly salary, a contract, paid leave. Uwase rented a stall at a market and sells second-hand clothes; she earns what she sells, some weeks a lot, some weeks little. Kalisa works three days a week at a hotel reception and spends weekends photographing weddings with his own camera. (Illustrative case: the people are invented.)
Think about it: which cousin has the most security, which the most independence, and which has tried to have some of both?
Definition
Employment option: a way in which a person can earn a living from work. The two broad options are working for someone else and working for oneself.
Wage employment: working for an employer (a person, company, government body or organisation) in return for a wage or salary. The worker is an employee.
Self-employment: working for oneself and earning from the profit of one's own business. A self-employed person with no regular employees is an own-account worker; one who hires regular employees is an employer.
Definition
Contributing family worker: a person who works, usually without regular pay, in a business run by a member of the same household.
Formal employment: work with a contract and legal protection, in a registered organisation, usually with social security. Informal employment: work without these protections, for example casual labour without a contract, or an unregistered small business.
Freelancer: a self-employed person who sells their services to many clients, one job at a time, such as a photographer, translator or web designer.
NISR's Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2024 counts the employed population by status in employment (figures in thousands):
| Status in employment | 2023 | 2024 | Change 2023–2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employees | 2,726 | 2,954 | +8.4% |
| Self-employed (own-account workers and employers) | 1,118 | 1,331 | +19.1% |
| Contributing family workers | 114 | 159 | +39.3% |
| Total employed | 3,959 | 4,445 | +12.3% |
The same report found that most employees (68.8%) had short-term or casual contracts, 25.8% had permanent contracts and 5.4% fixed-term ones; that 90% of employed people worked in the private sector, 6.2% in the public sector and 3.8% for households; and that informal employment made up 90.4% of all employment in 2024.
Tip
Status and formality are two different questions. First ask "who does the person work for?" (an employer, themselves, the family). Then ask "is the work protected by a contract, registration and social security?" An employee can be informal (a casual labourer), and a self-employed person can be formal (a registered business).
Worked example 1: reading the NISR table
(a) What share of employed people were self-employed in 2024? (b) Check the 19.1% growth in self-employment.
(a)
(b)
Interpretation: about three in ten working people were self-employed, and self-employment grew more than twice as fast as wage employment (19.1% against 8.4%) between 2023 and 2024. Self-employment is a large and growing option, but most of it is informal, so many of these workers lack the protection that formal work gives.
Worked example 2: comparing earnings per hour
Gisa earns Frw 200,000 a month for 176 hours of work. Uwase's stall makes a profit of Frw 260,000 a month, but she works 260 hours. Compare their earnings per hour. (Illustrative figures.)
Interpretation: Uwase earns more in total but less per hour, and her income is less certain. On the other hand, her stall is an asset she can grow, and she controls her time. Comparing options fairly means looking at income per hour, security, benefits and growth, not only the monthly total.
| Feature | Wage employment | Self-employment |
|---|---|---|
| Income | Regular, fixed by contract | Varies with sales; can be higher or lower |
| Security | Higher, especially with a permanent contract | Lower; depends on the business |
| Benefits | In formal jobs: leave, social security, sometimes training | Only what the owner arranges and pays for |
| Independence | Follows the employer's instructions | Decides what, when and how |
| Capital needed | None | Some, from savings or loans |
| Growth | Through promotion | Through growing the business and hiring others |
Many people combine the two, as Kalisa does: a part-time or full-time job gives a steady income and experience while a small business is tested on the side.
Warning
Do not equate self-employment with informality, or a job with security. A registered sole trader is self-employed and formal. And in 2024 most employees in Rwanda were on short-term or casual contracts (NISR), so many jobs are less secure than they look. Read the contract before you compare options.
International Labour Organization, "Informality and the Transition to Formality: Leaving No One Behind". Listen for what informal work lacks (contracts, legal protection, social security) and why moving to formal work matters for workers and businesses.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the cousins' case, the tree diagram, the tables, the worked examples and the practice items. The people and their figures are illustrative (2026).
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each worker to their status in employment.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
