Rwanda Savings Group Fuels Entrepreneurial Growth
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
“Mabuja” or “Big Boss Lady.” This is what community members near and around Akabeza village in the Nyabihu district of western Rwanda, call Cherine Nzayinambaho. They use these terms out of respect and admiration.
Cherine Nzayinambaho, a farmer and businesswoman in CRS’ Reach the Goal and Youth for Youth programs, uses a mobile phone app to check on her sales.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
After losing her parents as a child, many assumed Cherine would follow in the path of other girls who faced similar situations: drop out of school, get married and have children at a young age, or turn to prostitution.
But Cherine dreamed of more.
“Growing up, I knew I needed a business that would earn me money to pay for my school fees, and at the same time allow me to continue my studies and not consume my time,” she says. “I realized that tree tomatoes were something that I could easily do and earn a profit from. It is a unique crop that is not really grown here, and many people like to eat it.”
While still in primary school, Cherine planted nine tree tomato seeds in her sister’s garden. The first ones took two years to bear fruit. While waiting, she also planted potatoes, which grow much more quickly.
Freshly harvested tree tomatoes are small, sweet fruits that are grown in Rwanda.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
For the next six years, she paid her school fees using the money she earned from selling the crops. She now harvests the tree tomatoes every two weeks and still grows potatoes. Using the profits, Cherine saved money to rent land to plant even more tree tomatoes and potatoes.
“By that time, I was 16 and doing quite well for myself,” Cherine says. “And all the while, I continued my studies. Education is important to me.”
Her career was further advanced in 2022 when staff from Caritas Rwanda, who are part of Catholic Relief Services’ Gera Ku Ntego and Youth for Youth projects, came to her village. Youth for Youth and Gera Ku Ntego, which translates as “reach the goal,” focus on supporting young people in rural Rwanda with finding employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.
As part of the program, Cherine learned about Savings and Internal Lending Communities, or SILC, and connected with other young people to form a group. Together, they learned about business management and market expansion, and they were connected with certified seed sellers.
Cherine Nzayinambaho, a farmer from Akabeza village in the Nyabihu district of western Rwanda, harvests tree tomatoes on her farmland.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
“Before joining this project, I worked alone,” Cherine says. “I didn’t know how to work with other farmers. I was the farmer and the harvester and the seller and the marketer. What I really wanted was to focus on finding markets and helping other youth sell and grow.”
Thanks as well to a CRS-supported mobile phone application called KudiBooks, Cherine can connect to sellers and buyers across the country, as well as keep track of her expenses and earnings. She can also take orders and ship items without having to travel from her home.
“This is something,” she says, “that was a game changer.”
Today, at age 30, Cherine considers herself a successful entrepreneur, business owner, exporter and mentor. She oversees a network of farmers and employes as many young people as possible. She provides them with seeds and sometimes even land and then is repaid with a portion of their harvest, which she sells for profit. She also buys their harvests at a fair price and resells them to her contacts in bigger cities for a profit.
Alphonsine Nyirabashyitsi, one of the farmers that Cherine Nzayinambaho employs, shows off some newly harvested tree tomatoes.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
“The benefit of this model for the farmers is that they are guaranteed a market for their harvests,” Cherine explains. “Many don’t know how to sell outside of the community. And here the profit is low. Now, they cultivate knowing they have a place to sell the produce and receive a good price.”
Cherine says she is currently saving up to buy trucks so that her produce doesn’t need to be shipped using public transportation. And she says her ultimate dream is to open a juice production business for tree tomatoes and other fruit.
“Maybe one day I will even reach international markets!” she says. “This project changed my life because I got connected with others and learned important business skills. We youth, we are motivated to learn. We just need the opportunity to do so.”
CRS Rwanda empowers Rwandan youth to thrive by supporting young Rwandans to sustain meaningful income generation and to use formal financial services to expand their small- and medium-sized enterprises. CRS implements the privately-funded Gera Ku Ntego project, which translates as “reach the goal,” to leverage existing key relationships with local stakeholders, such as the Government of Rwanda, the Church and the private sector, who understand the severity of and seek to improve Rwanda’s youth unemployment, including the specific barrier of inaccessible formal finance. The Gera Ku Ntego project is implemented in eight districts of Rwanda and aims to reach 7,441 youth participants and help them sustain meaningful income generation and use formal financial services to expand their small- and medium-sized enterprises. The Youth for Youth project improves the lives and livelihoods of young adults in Rwanda by strengthening youth digital entrepreneurship and the enabling environment around youth entrepreneurship. Y4Y’s project strategy aims to provide hybrid solutions in the form of digital and in-person support to help solve some of the most pressing problems faced by youngentrepreneurs in rural Rwanda.
