Jean Claude owned a small waste collection business in Kigali, Rwanda. He consulted with Taku from Grow Movement to expand his business. Taku suggested that Jean Claude focus on collecting waste from businesses and households by having customers prepay, rather than taking out a loan to buy mobile toilets as originally planned. Following Taku's advice, within six months Jean Claude established waste collection for 3,000 customers in Kigali. He has since created 26 jobs and hopes to purchase a truck to further grow the business. The experience gave Taku insight into Rwandan culture and reinforced his belief that Grow Movement's approach of empowering African entrepreneurs respects the local value of dignity and self-sufficiency.

1. Entrepreneur: Jean Claude Ntakirutimana, 35
Jean Claude is married and living in Kigali Rwanda
with a son aged three. He worked as a primary school
teacher for six years before working at a health NGO. His
business, Kigali Sanitation Waste Management Company,
involved the collection of household rubbish and
transportation to a local site within one district of Kigali.
Consultant: Taku Kufa, 35
Taku is a Zimbabwean living in London. A quality
assurance manager for a fish importer with an MSc
in Food Manufacturing and Marketing from Reading
University. “As an African citizen in diaspora I am partly
motivated by a need to contribute something back to the
continent through leveraging my skills, ideas, experiences
and networks. Grow Movement has embraced the idea
that Africa is changing and that interventions need to
change tactics. They have created a platform where it
is easy to volunteer skills. The Grow Movement logic
of intervention is innovative and works better not only
because of its low cost and riding on the back of Africa’s
improving mobile phone/internet connectivity but
because it is personalised communication.”
Business challenges and objectives of the project
Jean Claude had a business plan to purchase three
mobile toilets from China. He planned to provide toilets
at bus stops and densely populated areas of Kigali. He
needed help to find a loan to finance it. His business
plan had already been listed as one of the top 25
projects in an entrepreneur competition in Rwanda.
Whilst going through the problem definition and
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research phases with Taku he saw an opportunity to
establish Kigali Sanitation as the business that collects
business and household waste using trucks from urban
centres of Kigali. Taku highlighted to him that he did
not need a loan to a start the waste collection business,
just a slight change of focus. He only needed to apply
for a licence then get people to prepay for their waste
collection. Using the cash prepared he could hire a
lorry to do first collections and repeat the process. Jean
Claude followed that advice and within six months he
managed to establish a business venture doing 3000
collections in Kigali with hope of future expansion into
original idea of mobile bus toilets.
The results
Jean Claude has created 26 new jobs – two drivers and
23 cleaners – as well as being gainfully employed by the
company himself. He is now looking to raise finance to be
able to purchase a truck rather than having to hire one,
as well as diversifying into recycling paper into trays.
The Impact on Taku
“The experience of consulting at Grow Movement
had a profound impact on me. I learnt something
about other African cultures in the process. Helping
a Rwanda entrepreneur required me understand his
motivation, business and cultural context. The one
thing that I learnt was the cultural value of Agaciro
– a Kinyarwanda word closely translated to mean
dignity or self-worth. The African conception of
Agaciro is that dignity is acquired and maintained
by doing things for oneself instead of hand outs from
others. Grow Movement approach facilitates African
entrepreneurs to take leadership and ownership of
their development themselves. As an African I am
proud to be part of Grow Movement who in my opinion
has created a process which either by design or default
places the agenda of dignity (Agaciro) right at the
centre of our development.”
Jean Claude Taku
RWANDA
March 2014