The Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women.

Under the business name Excel Corp, Natacha is both a Electrogaz products dealer (electricity air time and products) and Event Management, including the provision of promotional materials, flowers, etc. She incorporates her love of design and helping people with their special events into her business.

Natacha opened her business in November 2008 and uses occasional workers for events. She has 2 partners.

Salma Habib’s mother opened La Corniche Motel & Restaurant in Gisenyi, Rwanda in 1998. In the beginning it was only a restaurant, but the BEST retaurant in Rwanda cooking African food. As the business grew, bed rooms and services were added. Salma Habib, serving as the accountant to the business, obtained a business loan, combined it with her savings and purchased part of the business.

A new restaurant was then built, rooms added and today plans are underway to add a shop in the hotel that will specialize in wedding gowns and accessories. Salma tells IEEW that she loves making people happy. Her focus since becoming a partner is customer service. And that focus seems to be paying dividends.

Lydie Hakizimana owns Drakkar Bookshop in Nyarutarama, Rwanda. Always an avid reader, her idea of selling books occurred to her as she cleaned house one day and discovered she had 250 books in her basement. She opened a small bookshop. She used her savings to get a bigger building, added shelves and hired two students and began selling used and new books.

Her business now located in a residential area specializes in school books, novels for adults and children. Her main customers are expatriates, since the reading culture in Rwanda is still low and most Rwandans perceive books to be too expensive.

Recently named the Peason/Longman rep in Rwanda and Burundi, she now provides books to ministries, private companies and NGO’s. The bookstore is also a reseller of electricity, called CashPower in Rwanda.

Catherine owns C&B Co., a marketing and business connection company.

She is the appointed dealer for Rwandatel (formerly Terracom) to resell it’s products and services. Primary products are EasyCall phones and phone vouchers. She also provides Business Consultant training teaching marketing and networking skills.

She opened her business in 2006.

Allen Joy owns Amba Styles Boutique. It is a clothing business that began at Carwash Kigali and now has an outlet in the City Centre. Allen Joy and her mother started the business in 2003 and expanding in June 2008 to include arts and crafts business, leaving full control to Allen Joy in the Boutique.

Amba Styles offers an extensive line of clothing, perfumes, markup, greeting cards, lingerie and bridal clothes. Tailoring services are also offered. Allen Joy’s mother is a PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS graduate, Betty Kinyana Habimana.

Joan owns and operates a book store Kigali Bookstore and Distributors.

She sources for authors to write books for the academic needs for schools then the general selling of English books to the general public. She began her business in May 2000 after discovering a gap between the suppliers of required academic books and the end users. The only bookshops only offered outdated material and foreign owned.

She was approached by Oxford University Press to become their representative and her business blossomed. She currently has 3 employees.

She hopes to improve her management skills and improve her planning and leadership skills as well.

Marlene owns an ice cream shop, importing from South Africa and Kenya.

Her dream is to create ice creams in-house, which would require the purchase of equipment. She has been educated in Italy to equip her with the right skills and exposure to one of the largest suppliers in Italy.

She opened her business in September 2006 and has 6 employees.

Jane operates Tech Consult, a tea distribution business, with plans to expand into value added sales of tomato sauce. She was inspired by her father who cared for her schooling even while they were refugees.

She currently has 5 employees and has 4 partners, which include her sister-in-law, a food scientist and her brother plus one partner in Uganda.

Nalule owns Salon Essentials, a hair and beauty salon.

She felt the need to open her own business after working at Green Hills Academy for 5 years. She made application for a small loan plus her savings and opened in 2004.

She currently has 12 employees, and hopes to acquire improved managerial skills and learn from others while participating in our program.

Nkesha Alyce operates a home-based business called Intsinzi 4lifestyle. Her company offers interior design and home imporvement. She has tailored her services to allow her clients to decorate in phases. She is creative in her decorating ideas, incorporating thems that make her clients comfortable in their environment. Nkesha Alyce also offers house cleaning and plant maintenance services as well as consultation only services.

She writes: “I started with my house, the passion for having a clean and beautiful environment both at home and at work got the attention of my guests and their friends and collegues. I started out decorating kid’s rooms because I was a stay-at-home mom with no income and operating on a small budget to beautify my home. She formalized her business in 2007 and now has 2 employees. She is in partnership now with her husband, who possesses DIY skills which comes in handy.