PERSONAL STATEMENT
My name is DUSHIME BURIZA Raoul and I am 30 years old. I have a Bachelor degree in
Business Administration, Finance and Banking option; I graduated in 2016 at Mount Kenya
University Rwanda. I always had an interest in finance since my youngest age in high school
where I studied economics, geography and history section to learn the basic principles of finance,
and after finishing high school, my teacher of Economics whom I told about my interest in
finance, advised me to look for an internship in a business entity in order to know how it
functions. Luckily, I was accepted in an I.T company called Noble Click ltd that offered me
firstly an internship place for three months, and after, an employment contract for the position of
Assistant Marketing and Customer Care Officer, because they appreciated my productive work
in the marketing department. My general responsibility referred to keeping good relationships
with our customers and looking for new clients. That job helped me to deeply understand the
importance of the customers for a business company and how to treat and maintain them, on one
hand, and on the other hand, it also assisted me in my student life to finance university fees,
given that my daytime was dedicated to the work while university study program underwent
evenings. By the time I was in university in finance classes, some topics attracted a lot my
attention and interest including Financial Risk Management course, Finance Principles,
Accounting Principles, Quantitative Techniques, Co-operative and Microfinance management.
These courses took me to another level and prepared me to step in mid level job in Finance
industry.
A little bit time after my graduation, I got an opportunity to be offered a job contract by one
microfinance institution (Goshen Finance Plc) where my role spanned between loan management
and business development. Basically, I used to manage customer’s loan applications that
included analyzing their business plans and budgets. This task requested me field visits and
checks of their stores, client business background, scrutinize balance sheets and Income
Statements of their businesses and give approval to the bankable projects. I was also in charge of
keeping good relationship with the existing customers and bringing in new clients through
suggestion of a number of new products designed by the bank for customers. What amazed me in
this particular position was that I was connected directly with people and I am happy about the
contribution I induced for the growth of many people’s businesses and the development of the
bank business. The work opened my minds with various projects that were possible to carry out
for my own and I did an arrangement with my supervisor to exit the bank after successful three
and half years of services and started to work as an independent consultant for businesses in
marketing by helping starting companies to get more customers nationwide as quick as possible.
This effort compels me to make further studies in another educational environment different
from the one I had been evolving in. I think it would sound well to get a combination of
knowledge of finance and marketing to bridge gaps encountered over my work experience and
advance in my career.
I am interested in studying in a Canadian university because the educational system in
Canada is among the world’s best performing higher education and I found that University of
Canada West stands in a good ranking among the best universities. Its learning program is made
through wonderful systems that combine theories and workshops and I believe a lot in this kind
of learning method. Unfortunately, we don’t have such way of teaching in our country. I think
that this learning programs gives a space of participation and debates that creates strong
confidence in students and prepares them for a successful performance and get rid of challenges
ahead of their work life.
As aforementioned, I am interested to breakthrough in financial sector based on my emotional
feeling to love banking and I have a certain experience in that field. I want to take this
opportunity to capitalize my experience and maximize the knowledge I will get in the Canadian
educational system through University of Canada West, a business-oriented university where
students are provided with an amount of practical and theoretical financial insights to cope the
challenges that this changing world is facing. Therefore I hope to be ready to play an innovative
role to disrupt financial processes in my home Country on my return through working or offering
consultancy services in financial sector, given that my Country is among the fastest growing
economies in Africa and I would like to be part of this dynamics as an actor in the financial
sector.
Yours Sincerely,
DUSHIME BURIZA Raoul
