I'm now home and playing "catch-up"! I hope to set aside a page on the website for some of the many photos I took and shown is a group of villagers I met on my second full day in this fascinating country. Set out below is an article on the project I was involved in:There are two economies in Rwanda. The first is Rwandese and largely subsistence farming or as we were memorably told “gardening,” where people, and particularly those outside the capital, Kigali, struggle to keep life going. The second is based around the ex-patriate community, aid, and the many NGOs who are there to administer it. While we enjoyed the later during the evenings eating in quality restaurants such as “Heaven” which would compete anywhere in the world, my day to day activity was concerned with the former, trying to pass on some of the experience I gained running a small business in the UK.
I spent varying amounts of time with seven enterprises ranging in size from a co-operative of largely subsistence farmers who have formed a co-operative to grow pineapples together to a Rwanda’s largest textile manufacturer looking to diversify into silk production and the manufacture of mosquito nets using a new technology. In between I met with business owners and managers to learn about the cultivation of roses almost entirely for export; the manufacture of toilet rolls and paper napkins; a project to install polythene lined ponds to enable some irrigation to be brought to areas of agriculture; the development of a new private school; and an engineering business focussed on making wheel barrows. There was also time to speak to students at the School of Business and Finance about running a business in the UK and the enjoyment of being a dragon in the “Dragons Den” modelled on the TV series with a separate group of students at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. My pleasure at being able to ask the difficult questions was tempered by fellow dragon’s suggestion afterwards that we put our proposals for a business idea before the students we had just put through the mill and who were keen for revenge!
Common themes among all of the businesses were the impact of Government involvement in the business sector; the difficulty in recruiting effective middle managers; the very high cost of raw materials caused by little domestic availability and the high costs of transportation; the lack of a relationship between producers and their customers leading to little understanding of the market place in which they operate. I was shocked to learn that despite low labour rates, the high cost of materials causes products as basic as toilet roll and wheelbarrows to be double the price of similar products in the UK. Improvements can simply and easily be made within the production process in each case, but the greatest opportunity to improve efficiency can come from better purchasing and use of resources. However as a land locked country with poor road communications to the ports making big changes is always going to be difficult. For this reason the decision of the textile manufacturer to produce silk makes sense for products going to export since silk is four times as valuable as cotton for the same weight. If you’re looking for a new tie in a couple of years time see whether Rwandan silk is available!
The recent history of the country is never far from the surface and while some people shied away from discussing the genocide of 1994, others spoke of it in a matter of fact way. Some businesses lost many of their staff and have made an effort to recruit widows and heads of orphan households in order to provide an income. I was able to tell business people about the success of “Fair Trade” here, and how there is a sector of our market in supermarket commodities where people are willing to pay more for goods when they know that a larger proportion of the purchase price finds it’s way back to a producer in need of a boost to their income. I believe that if Rwandan manufacturers can similarly identify products made for export and for consumption by the ex-patriate community in Rwanda, consumers will be willing to pay a little more to support a country which is re-building after horrific times. Every large business started off as a small business and getting this message across will assist small businesses to grow. Trade will always have a better long term benefit than aid.
Those Conservatives who were building the community centre saw a marvellous facility come to fruition; our teachers were able to measure the improvements shown by their pupils over the two weeks and our doctors had a direct relationship with those they helped. In the private sector group our achievements were less tangible and at times difficult to appreciate. Our results will be more long term. I know that I will remain in contact with each of the businesses over coming months and I look forward to continuing to help them, often by putting them in contact with people more experienced in a particular field than myself. Whatever happens, I will follow the progress of Rwanda and the development of it’s economy with a special interest, hoping that the enthusiasm and desire to succeed of the people I encountered will be reflected in their future together.
