We help you get
closer to your customers.

Entrepreneurs in Rwanda

March 31 – Kigali. Chris Hills and I hired an English-speaking driver and car to take us around Kigali, capital of Rwanda. It’s hard to compare Kigali with an American city. If Rwanda is the “country of a thousand hills,” Kigali has at least a dozen of them. Rwanda is a lush, tropical country, and Kigali’s hills are green with trees and covered with multicolored flowering plants. There is a mix of housing stock, from simple brick homes and shacks to large, red tile-roofed houses. There are modern government buildings, impressive embassies, and many UN and NGO headquarters.

When we came upon one of the many markets on the edge of town, we got out to walk around. We found ourselves in the middle of the Kigali stockyards. Every morning, cattle are trucked in from the surrounding farms, ushered down a fenced metal shoot to a series of butcher shops.

We pushed open the door to one butcher shop and met Jean-Pierre. Jean Pierre, a fifth generation French cattleman is in partnership with a Belgian hog farmer and Dr. Jacques, a Rwandan veterinarian. Dr. Jacques, the enterprise’s managing director, is a former ambassador to Canada, and once led the Rwandan Olympic team to the Atlanta Olympics as Minister of Youth.

We spent time learning about their operations and their mission to raise the quality standards of meat production in Rwanda. A partnership of three entrepreneurs, they voiced their need for additional managerial and leadership training. Dr. Jacques observed that while many Rwandans have specialized skills, what they don’t have is training in management. An opportunity for coaching and mentoring, perhaps? A way we could help?