Cavabon Cheese is one of the leading Small and Medium dairy products manufacturers in Rwanda, producing a range of cheeses. The cheese production dates back to 1990...[more]
Can cheese be topping on Rwanda’s agricultural exports? – @AfricanBizMag
The Rwandan government has begun a drive for increased cheese quality to help boost dairy exports and the home market holds great potential for growth...[more]
Meet Dieudonne (Diego) Twahirwa founder of Gashora Farm, winner of a $500 million Chili Supply contract with GK International Enterprises China
...In September 2019, Gashora Farm, a Rwandan agribusiness, signed a contract with Chinese importer GK International Enterprises worth $500 million over five years to supply dried chili to China. This deal alone, which is valued at $100 million annually, springboards chili to become Rwanda’s top export, surpassing both tea and coffee...[more]
How an African ecofriendly shoe brand – Uzuri K&Y- is transforming lives in #Rwanda @uzuriky
Honey products from Holy-Trust #Rwanda founded by Shafi Hagenimana @Hollytrust3
Shafi Hagenimana, is a 25-year old entrepreneur is involved in honey processing to produce skin products and other raw materials. In 2015, with capital of Rwf 250,000, he founded Holly-Trust which is located in Ngoma District. His Made-In-Rwanda products are increasingly becoming popular and are traded under the brand name KASO. The company deals with beekeeping, honey processing and produce related products such as body and hair lotion out of honey. The firm also incorporates other raw materials such as coconut, aloe-vera, avocado and carrots among other raw materials...[more]
Aldango Gold Refinery #Rwanda | The new facility has a capacity to refine 6 tonnes of gold a month, or about about 220 kilogrammes a day.
Rwanda has built its first-ever gold refinery at a cost of $5 million to process gold from all over Africa and halt raw minerals from leaving the continent...[more]
#Rwanda approves tax breaks on alcohol brewed using locally sourced materials
The government’s proposal to reduce consumption tax on alcohol beverages brewed using locally sourced raw materials has received approval from the Members of the Chamber of Deputies.
The MPs passed the draft law, which reduces the consumption tax rate on beers and wines made using locally produced raw materials...[more]
#Rwanda steps into Africa’s Apparel Sourcing mix – Following the Path of #Ethiopia & #Bangladesh
For years now, Ethiopia has garnered the spotlight for its ambitions to become the world's next big destination for textile and fashion production. But another East African country - Rwanda - is also gearing up for a slice of the action, with the country's newest export-led garment factory quickly making up for lost time...[more]
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‘Agriculture Growth Network’ #Rwanda
‘Agriculture Growth Network’. It helps small and medium scale farmers increase their productivity and quality, and connects them to profitable and potential markets...[more]
Carl Sweet Food #Rwanda makes pastries from sweet potatoes
Regis Umugiraneza, Uwase Larissa, Murekatete Clarisse, and Irirashenono Ada Elyse established CARL Group established four years ago with an objective to provide innovative and affordable products and services in three diverse areas; agribusiness, environment and architecture, to the people of Rwanda.
Through its subsidiary, CARL Sweet Food, the company produces a range of innovative food products using sweet potatoes...[more]
The role of rural women in making home brew: a Rwandan case study #Rwanda
Across sub-Saharan Africa traditional non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages are made from locally available produce like cereals, fresh milk, fruits, and vegetables. Ethiopia, for example, is famous for its alcoholic beverage Cheka, while mahewu, tobwa and mangisi are non-alcoholic cereal-based drinks popular in Zimbabwe...[more]
Dushakumurimo a Fishing Cooperative in #Rwanda
...Valeria belongs to a local cooperative known as “Dushakumurimo,” which is comprised of fish dealers and fisherwomen and men on Lake Kivu. They sell one basin (about15 kilos) of the Isambaza at a price of RWF 22 500, or approximately USD 26.More here
“We can catch between 15- 150kg of fish in three hours depending on the fish species,” Valeria reports. “But in our manually-paddled boats, it takes us forty minutes to transport the fish from the water to the shore in Rusizi’s Kamembe District.”
Skyrocket founded by @TobiOyinlola is launching a Pay-as-you-cook technology to boost use of affordable LPG in #Rwanda
Skyrocket was one of the three selected teams. Oluwatobi Oyinlola who is the team lead proposed a Smart Device for LPG which enable another method of cooking at a very affordable price using the model called Pay-as-you-cook The team further received a seed-funding and mentoring to develop their ideas into full prototypes over the course of 3 months.
1000hills #Rwanda – A Craft Distillery
Kigali Surgical Innovation Hackathon
The theme of the hackathon was ‘Surgical Innovation’, where keynote presentations and problem pitches were presented within the framework of a National Surgical Obstetric and Anaesthesia Plan (NSOAP).
Soot Free Cookers from Inyenyeri #Rwanda
In 2017, a Rwandan cookstove company revealed this week that it has raised more money in the past six months than the entire cookstove sector has raised in any single year.
Inyenyeri, a Rwandan company that provides cookstoves to households at no cost in exchange for customers buying their wood fuel pellets, announced at the Clean Cooking Forum in New Delhi, India, that it has raised more than $20 million in loans, grants, and the sale of carbon credits.
In Feb 2018, Inyenyeri was now serving 2,500 homes with top level stoves, while using renewable, made-in-Rwanda fuels. Inyenyeri will use a 3 million Euro IKEA Foundation grant toward their goal of providing this solution to 150,000 households in Rwanda by 2020...[more]
Gashora farm Rwanda in a $2 million deal to export chilli to China
One of the highlights of the first China International Import Expo is a $2 million business deal between one of Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs and China.
Rwanda’s Diego Twahirwa, the owner of Gashora farm, inked the deal with China’s Kai Jiang Xian zi Wei Food last week that will see him export chilli to the Asian nation starting November 2018 until May 2019 reports The New Times...[more]
Janine Ndagijimana grows Rwandan bitter eggplants in Vermont
After surviving refugee camps in Africa, Janine Ndagijimana settled in Vermont and began to dream of farming.More hereWhen she considered what to plant, she thought back to her time in Tanzania and settled on the African eggplant, also called bitter ball or garden egg. It wasn’t found in Vermont, and she remembered how it garnered a good price at the refugee market.
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Meet Assoumpta Uwamariaya the Vintner in #Rwanda making Red Wine from Beetroot
Wine "Made in Rwanda". That sounds unusual at first. And the "grapes" are also different than usual, because the red Karisimbi is made from beetroot. Beetroot wine is the idea of a young Rwandan woman. Business is good, now she also receives orders from abroad...[more]
From Kigali to Khartoum: Africa’s drone revolution
From Kigali to Khartoum, we meet pioneers using drones to tackle some of Africa's current and future challenges.
Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), have been used for more than three decades, but in the last few years drones are increasingly being developed and used for commercial purposes.
But while inventors and entrepreneurs in Western countries struggle with strict regulations, many African countries are proving very innovative and accepting in terms of drone usage across industries.
From Kigali to Khartoum, pioneers are using drones to tackle some of the continent's current challenges...[more]
The next generation of African architects and designers #TEDGlobal
Christian Benimana wants to build a network of architects who can help Africa's booming cities flourish in sustainable, equitable ways -- balancing growth with values that are uniquely African. From Nigeria to Burkina Faso and beyond, he shares examples of architecture bringing communities together. A pan-African movement of architects, designers and engineers on the continent and in diaspora are learning from and inspiring each other, and Benimana invites us to imagine future African cities as the most resilient, socially inclusive places on earth.
Rwanda SkinCare Pioneer – Uburanga Products
How Rwanda Became the Unlikeliest Tourism Destination in Africa
Yego Moto for Taxi-Motorcycles
More here
...Yego Moto is a new technology system that allows taxi-moto operators to charge passengers without bargaining. It is a ‘metre’ service which uses Global Positioning System (GPS) devices installed on motorcycles to deliver information about the journey covered by a passenger.
Earthen Flooring from EarthEnable, Rwanda
EarthEnable: Sustainable earthen flooring for Rwanda from EarthEnable on Vimeo.
Dust is kicked up, spills and puddles stick around, and the floors of peoples’ homes become a breeding ground for mosquitos, parasites, and all of the disease that comes with them. But concrete floors are just too expensive for many families, especially in Rwanda.
EarthEnable’s custom-developed earthen floors are the solution. EarthEnable eliminates unsanitary dirt floors and provides affordable, sanitary flooring that can be washed, cleaned, and used to create a healthy home environment for millions of people.
Africa Improved Foods, #Rwanda
...Africa Improved Foods (AIF), a partnership between DSM, the World Food Programme, the Rwandan government, and various other stakeholders like the International Finance Corporation, is the first public-private partnership to take root in Africa specifically to address malnutrition.More here
To source the maize and soy that forms the base of the porridges, the AIF consortium is working with 7,500 Rwandan smallholder farmers, the majority of whom are women; the AIF plant has also created 314 new jobs, all filled by locals. “It’s an astounding fact that over half the people in the world who suffer from hunger are small-scale farmers,” says Rick Leach, president and CEO of the World Food Program USA. “Sourcing from local small-scale farmers will help to deal with extreme poverty and chronic hunger in the country.”
Blood from the Sky: Zipline’s Ambitious Medical Drone Delivery in Africa
Rwanda Craft Brewery
Rwanda’s Agricultural Entrepreneurs
Chat without the Internet using nFrnds
...The Biomedical Laboratory student at INES (Institut d’Enseignement Superieur de Ruhengeri) has developed nFrnds – an application similar to Whatsapp. But on her App, subscribers can chat freely without internet.More here
Nyirakarinka 23 developed the App idea after attending rigorous training by nFrnds platform – an Israel company that provides software to social enterprises working to support people who cannot afford digital world means.
Iriba Clean Water Delivery
More hereYvette Ishimwe, the proprietor of Iriba Clean Water Delivery, a water distribution business in Kayonza District, says her business was born out of need to supply her community with safe drinking water, especially during the long dry spells.
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via AllAfrica
Tap & Go – A Cashless Bus Payment System
The Rwanda company behind the country’s cashless bus payment system, Tap & Go is looking to expand its franchise. The system allows commuters to electronically pay for their bus fares through mobile money or point of sale devices operated by vendors at bus terminals. Barely 6 months after its launch, the company’s founder says they have received demands from other countries to introduce the system there...[more]
Rwanda Farmers Coffee Company
The Rwanda Farmers Coffee Company launched the opening of a $4.4M ($3 billion Rwf) coffee factory, according to The New Times. The facility — where roasting and packaging will take place — is located in the Gikondo district of Kigali.More here
Coffee farmers are said to eventually benefit from the factory which will contribute to raising their incomes, offering more production capacity and access to European, Asian and local markets the report said.
Commonly earning .07 cents per kilogram of coffee — with the help of the factory, farmers can expect to earn .25-.29 cents per kilogram. During the launch, according to The New Times, foreign buyers upped their pay, offering 14 pounds instead of 5 pounds per kilogram.
Rwandan Drone Cluster in the making? Ziplines to launch Medical Supply Drones
More here
The agreement, signed by the Ministry of Youth and ICT and the Ministry of Health on behalf of Government, aims at building an infrastructure for unmanned aerial system to ensure efficient logistical transportation of medical supplies in Rwanda.
A quick win is expected from the delivery of essential medical products especially blood supplies in all hospitals across the country, according to officials.
This makes Rwanda the first country across the world to use drone technology for supply of medical supplies.
Predicting Poverty with Mobile Phone Data
A picture of how wealthy or poor people are can be reconstructed from anonymized data generated by mobile phones, according to researchers analyzing cell phone data from Rwanda.Personal information that mobile devices gather such as a person's location often gets anonymized by stripping it of names, home addresses, phone numbers, and other obvious identifying details. Such metadata often get shared, and underlies popular services such as Google's real-time monitoring of road traffic...[more]
Construction of high-resolution maps of poverty and wealth from call records.
Rwanda’s soon to be launched "African Design Center"
MASS Design Group, a nonprofit US firm, plans to start an architecture and design training centre in Kigali, Rwanda, to help address the "dearth of professional designers" across Africa (+ movie).
MASS, which has offices in Boston and Kigali, will announce its plans for the new African Design Center at the United Nations Solutions Summit on 27 September in New York. The firm, founded in 2010, has completed a number of projects – including schools, medical clinics, and housing – in sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti and America.
The new centre, which the firm is raising money for and intends to open next year, will offer design training both in the classroom and in the field, and will also offer classes geared toward "soft skills" such as networking and business development. The firm hopes to replicate the pilot school in other regions around the continent...[more]
KivuWatt Rwanda – An Industrial-Scale Gas-Fueled Power Project
It’s a Friday afternoon on the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu, and in what was once a quiet cove, a daring venture is taking shape.
Floating just offshore, like a giant mechanical swan, is a nearly completed gas extraction platform: 3,000 tons of concrete and stainless steel that will soon begin capturing a resource not found at this scale in any other lake in the world. Dissolved within Kivu, which straddles the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are approximately 60 billion cubic meters of methane and 300 billion cubic meters of carbon dioxide. The gases, which come from nearby volcanic activity and bacteria decomposing organic material in the lake, represent both danger and economic potential.
If extracted, Kivu’s methane could be used to add up to 960 megawatts of electricity-generating capacity, more than six times what Rwanda has now. For both Rwanda and the eastern DRC, which face crippling power shortages and limited options for expanding their electric grids, that could be an economic game changer, supporting new industries and offering a chance to alleviate searing poverty. If the extraction is done properly and the countries can coöperate, it could even help improve their troubled relations and advance stability in a region long beset by turmoil...[continue reading]
Applications open today- Tigo’s tech incubators
Kenyan M&A
EDIT Kenya’s competition authority has now approved the acquisition of 100% of CMC Holdings by Al Futtaim Auto
- Scania East Africa Limited have taken over the purchasing, importing, assembling, fitting out, selling, servicing of trucks, buses and chassis in Kenya that was previously carried out by Kenya Grange Vehicle Industries.
- EDIT Merali and Sameer complete buyout of 14.9% of Firestone's stake in Sameer Africa.
Banking
- Fina Bank has changed over its operations in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to GTBank East Africa after Guaranty Trust Bank concluded the acquisition of a 70% stake in Fina Bank Group for $100 million through combination of a capital injection and acquisition of shares from Fina Bank shareholders.
Hotels: South Africa’s City Lodge acquires Kenya’s Fairview Hotel afterFairview Hotel firm agreed to sell the outstanding 50% of the joint venture
Insurance: Kenya’s competition authority has approved the acquisition of 66.38% of Phoenix of East Africa Assurance Company Limited by Mauritius Union Assurance
- EDIT Britism American (BritAM) completes buyout of 99% of Real Insurance
Transport
EDIT - Precision Air of Tanzania seeks a bailout from Kenya Airways?
EDIT - Transcentury to reduce stake in Rift Valley Railways (RVR)?
Other
Mobile and Internet Numbers for East Africa (2013 edition)
iHub Research continues to put out great research for clients. They also take time to put together the numbers for everyone else as far as what’s going on in our part of Africa.
Mobile & Internet Stats for East Africa
The most recent stats for East Africa’s mobile and internet usage have been put into an new infographic.
Here is a dump of the data used for this infographic:
Kenya Mobile Statistics
(Population: 44,037,656 July 2013 estimate)
30,429,351 mobile subscribers
16,236,583 (41%) Internet users
3.6 billion outgoing & incoming SMS
251,567 fixed lines
78% teledensity
Tanzania Mobile Statistics
(Population: 48,261,942 July 2013 estimate)
27,395,650 mobile subscribers
5,308,814(11%) Internet users
4.3 billion outgoing & incoming SMS
176,367 fixed lines
61% teledensity
7,662,504,921 voice traffic
Uganda Mobile Statistics
(Population: 34,758,809 July 2013 estimate)
18,300,000 mobile subscribers
4,800,000 (3.2%) Internet users
520 million outgoing & incoming SMS
464,849 fixed lines
52% teledensity
215,110,452 voice traffic
Rwanda Mobile Statistics
(Population: 12,012,589 July 2013 estimate)
6,039,615 mobile subscribers
903,964 Internet users
26 million outgoing & incoming SMS
42,323 fixed lines
57% teledensity
1,470,290,068 voice traffic
Burundi Mobile Statistics
(Population: 10,888,321 July 2013 estimate)
2,995,000 mobile subscribers
157,800 Internet users
80,039 fixed lines
2% teledensity
157,800 voice traffic
Sources:
http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2013/03/19/u-com-burundi-adds-mobile-banking-to-drive-customer-growth/
http://www.independent.co.ug/business/business-news/7748-airtel-warid-merger-shakes-market
http://www.independent.co.ug/news/news-analysis/7332-telecoms-gear-for-turf-wars-in-2013
http://www.independent.co.ug/business/business-news/7748-airtel-warid-merger-shakes-market
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/22/ozabs-econet-burundi-subscribers-idAFJOE76L0EY20110722
http://www.cio.co.ke/news/top-stories/Africell-buys-Tigo-to-expand-in-Sierra-Leone
http://dlca.logcluster.org/BDI/logistics-services/index.html
CIA World Factbook
2011/2012 Stats and Infographic
Here’s the 2011/2012 numbers for all of the countries in East Africa, plus some bonus numbers around mobile money at that time.
See the old ones from 2011 in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. You can also see the some 2012 numbers on the iHub that they put together as well.
Idea Exchange: CarnegieMellon, DABRA, PivotEast, ResearchGrants, TED, Apps
- Africa’s healthcare technology revolution
- Barry Bateman and Oscar Pistorius: Inside the Twitter explosion
- Ivory Coast’s Women Reject Equality in Household Law Debate
- Mozambique - Coal, gas: boom for all or just a few?
- Revisiting Tinapa
- Malawi: Beautiful Destination with limping tourism
- The Chinese loan conundrum: Who is benefitting from Zambia’s phantom growth in construction?
- ChamaPesa (gives investment groups a way to pool savings and invest in diverse instruments)
- Inforex (enables foreign exchange trading between Forex bureaus)
- EZsacco (allows savings societies to receive mobile payments, generate reports, and send members statements by SMS)
- Juakali (a service that links informal sector workers with potential clients)
- Smart Blackboard (gives students 1-on-1 interactive tutorials with real teachers, without the need for access to the internet)
- iDaktari (information management system for doctors with private practice)
- Kyatabu (a micro-leasing textbook subscription application)
- CancerBank (mobile app that makes for easier self diagnosis, early detection, triage and treatment of cancer)
- GreenHouse Pro (a guide for green house farmers to cultivate six different crops)
- Ma3Route (crowd-sources up-to-date traffic & transport information)
Africa Small Research Grant Competition: The Review of African Political Economyhas an African Political Economy Research Grants competition for African scholars/activists based in Africa and pursuing a political economy agenda. D/L is 31 July and details are here.
BlackBerry Scholars Program aims to encourage women in Kenya (and the world) to enter and develop careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)and will provide scholarships to outstanding applicants who are seeking degrees at accredited local colleges and universities in the areas of STEM across Kenya. Application deadline is June 26 and more details are here