Kigali Meetup Recap: Connecting Systems, People, and Ideas

On Thursday, 22 May 2025, OpenFn and Sand Technologies brought together Rwanda’s growing tech and development communities for an evening of live demos, real-world problem-solving, and meaningful connection.

Hosted at the Norrsken East Africa Hub in Kigali, the Software Integration Meetup wasn’t your average tech event - it was a space for collaboration, practical insight, and a shared vision: creating smarter, more efficient digital systems.

Real Problems, Real-Time Solutions

With the venue buzzing, attendees arrived ready to explore how OpenFn can help solve everyday challenges - like automating payment workflows, or connecting digital health tools to national reporting platforms.

Although the evening was scheduled to begin with a short introduction, the energy in the room had its own agenda. From the start, people were already deep in conversation sharing challenges, comparing tools, and sketching out real solutions.

Around the venue, OpenFn team members were stationed at sector-focused hubs, covering areas such as payments and financial management, government systems, healthcare, agriculture and climate, and education. Each station became a hands-on space for collaboration, where guests could explore ideas, ask questions, and even bring API documentation to troubleshoot and design workflows together.

We also took the opportunity to launch our Partnerships Program in Rwanda, which aims to empower local entrepreneurs, implementers, and integrators to earn recurring revenue by supporting OpenFn implementations and delivering impact for their customers. If you’re interested in joining, reach out to partners@openfn.org or watch this space for more info.

Whether it was streamlining data flows, digitising agricultural processes, or building smarter government systems, each collaboration became a mini co-design lab - turning ideas into actionable, real-time solutions.

To close the session, Taylor Downs from OpenFn and Joane Kayibanda from Sand Technologies addressed the group, connecting these practical examples to a broader goal: building robust digital infrastructure that empowers local teams, improves service delivery, and scales impact sustainably.

What Made This Event Special

Here are a few of our favourite moments from the night:

• Live demos: Not just theory. Attendees watched workflows built in minutes and saw what was possible using real data and systems.
• Implementation stories from the ground: We heard about successes and challenges from teams navigating integration at both national and local levels.
• Sneak preview of a new OpenFn feature: Kigali attendees got an exclusive first look at an upcoming OpenFn feature we’ll be releasing soon - AI may or may not be involved… watch this space to find out more.
• One-on-one troubleshooting: Guests got hands-on help mapping out how to connect their different systems - many being surprised just how much could be automated.

Kigali: The Right Place at the Right Time

Rwanda is rapidly emerging as a leader in digital transformation, with Kigali at the centre of a growing ecosystem of tech talent and social innovation. Across government, civil society, and the private sector, there’s a clear push to strengthen digital infrastructure and data-driven service delivery.

That progress was clear in the conversations throughout the evening. We saw real momentum from teams building everything from national platforms to grassroots tools, and left the event feeling more confident than ever that Kigali is not just a great place to meet - it’s where meaningful digital progress is happening.

What’s Next?

The Kigali meetup reminded us of what’s possible when technical teams, implementers, and decision-makers come together to tackle integration challenges collaboratively.

We’re taking the feedback, ideas, and sector-specific needs we heard and using them to strengthen how we support partners in Rwanda. We spoke to many interested people and organisations in the room, and we’ll be having follow up conversations with them and many others, to bring them onboard as official local implementation partners to OpenFn.

Coming soon:

• A full launch of our Partner Program in Rwanda - sharing revenue with people and organisations creating value in their local ecosystems.
• New platform features involving AI and Templates to speed up building workflows and integrations.
• More opportunities to connect with the OpenFn team and community - add a comment to this post if you want to meet up!

If you couldn’t make it but are working to improve data flows or connect systems, we’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re mapping your first workflow or supporting a national platform, we’re here to collaborate. Book a free automation session now, so that one of our Solutions Engineers can get to work automating your workflows and integrating your systems together.

Thank You

To everyone who joined us in Kigali - thank you for your ideas, your energy, and your openness. Huge thanks to Sand Technologies for co-hosting, and to Norrsken East Africa for the brilliant venue and support.

If you were in the room, we’d love to hear what stuck with you. Drop us a note, tag us in your photos, or tell us what you’re building next.

Here’s to building smarter systems and stronger partnerships together.