DETERMINATION IN RWANDA

Clarisse Umuhoza in her energy product distributorship, M&U Ninda, Ltd.

M&U Ninda Ltd: Green Energy for All, is a energy product retailer and wholesaler, importing and selling energy saving lighting to engineers and contractors, as well as individual middle-class households in Rwanda. Clarisse is betting on the future needs for energy savings and the desire to offset rising electricity prices. In fact, the Rwandan government is announcing initiatives that will encourage Rwandans to move to green energy and environmentally friendly products. 
Clarisse, the founder of M&U Ninda, was motivated to enter the green energy business by her husband, an engineer in water and electricity. She has come a long way from experiencing one of the most attrocious genocides in recent history, to helping her surviving family make ends meet from a tender age. Finishing school with mounting responsibilities was difficult for Clarisse, but after a scholarship to University and time spent working in a bank for minimum wage, Clarisse decided it was time to do more. With the success of her side job around the bank – selling clothing to her colleagues – Clarisse decided to take the next step, starting her own business.
After 4 years in business, Clarisse endeavored to learn new business skills and acquire new tools to help her achieve her overall mission of manufacturing her own products. Her goals for attending the course included improving management within the business and learning accounting. She completed the PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS(r) Class of 2020 10-week course and penned her first business plan. As soon as the application process opened up for 2021, we noticed the first application was from Clarisse. Wanting to reboot after the COVID-19 quarantine and determined to reach her dream to produce her own goods, her new goals for 2021 includes learning new, effective marketing strategies.
Clarisse is on a steady path toward success. Even through more great challenges, including a severe lockdown during the height of the pandemic, she is preparing the way toward her independent manufacturing facility. This is just another example of how we can both empower others and in turn, ourselves, through great challenges. M&U Ninda, LTD, has gone from a mini-shop selling one or two pieces of equipment a week (whatever she could afford to purchase) to a formalized business that will help to create sustainability for her family, her community, and for her country. Through pure grit and determination, M&U Ninda will provide lower-cost, locally manufactured products while creating jobs and leaving a lighter footprint on their beautiful land.
If you would like to eMentor Clarisse, or one of her incoming classmates in 2021, be sure to check out the Mentorship page on the IEEW website, and send us an email if you would like to discuss the opportunities in person.