Huye District Carpenters share tools to improve their products

Jerome Nsengimana is a carpenter based in Huye District, he has a workshop called” La Verticale”. The lack of modern equipment is also one of their biggest challenges and a great barrier to the development of the carpentry profession. According to him, local        carpenters are able to produce very innovative products if only they can have access to the modern equipment.

This is one of the issues that are being discussed in the nucleus group and as a temporary solution; they are hiring from each other the tools and equipment whenever they need to. This allows members to increase their production as the available resources are shared in a group.

”Before joining nucleus, I used to produce ordinary products, chair, bed or table and I was not getting many clients, but with the group, I gained more knowledge on how to do better designs, with the study tours and   training, I became more innovative. I have new designs and people love them. My productions have increased and so is my turn over up to 40%. I am now able to hire 1 support staff and regularly, I hire 5 temporally people depending on the jobs I get”  He says.

Jerome testifies that being in a group has opened his mind to new possibilities, he is now thinking about expanding and creating more designs. 

Huye Beverage nucleus in Rwanda benefits from working together

Huye Beverage nucleus group benefits from working together

Working in isolation is one of the  challenges that were   blocking Constance Mukabenda from    developing. She started her small beverage company “Inyamamare Ltd “in 2013 with 10 staff, producing 60 crates of local    banana beer per day. The business was not growing fast and she was selling her products only in the neighboring areas.

The Private sector Federation (PSF)  introduced to her the nucleus    approach as a way of connecting with other   people in the same profession. “After I joined nucleus group, things started to move quickly, I learned new marketing strategies, visited  other beverages companies and learned a lot from them.” She says. 

With the group, Constance business started to grow; she implemented new marketing    strategies and found out that most of the challenges identified during their discussions were advocated for to competent authorities. “My products became more known and I have more clients than before, I am now producing 200 crates per day and have hired 40 more staff to support me. Thanks to nucleus group my business is booming.”

Constance has now bought a car that helps her in the transport of bananas or for delivering the beers crates to clients. She has a turnover of 1 million  per month and she is thinking of expanding and  developing a new  product “a banana liquor!”