When Alice Nyirasagamba set out on her own to start a company that adds value to cassava in 2017, it was just another business idea she was trying out, having previously tried her hand at entrepreneurship but failed multiple times.

Nyirasagamba, a resident of Nyamiyaga Sector in Kamonyi District in the Southern Province, persisted a little more this time, pushing on with her company, Nyamiyaga Akanoze, which specialises in adding value to cassava produce.

The Southern Province is known for producing the popular staple tuber in abundance, and the 46-year-old mother of three knew that this could provide sustainable yields since the necessary raw material was available in plenty.

"I started small because I didn’t have the resources and knowledge in what I was doing. I was just a woman who came up with an idea and went out to put it into action. I got to a certain point and almost gave up, but I decided to push on,” Nyirasagamba says.

"I had done many things before but often failed or ended up making losses, but with this company I wanted to push a little harder,” she adds, emphasising how not giving up on one’s dream is a very important aspect of life.

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By the end of 2018, things had started looking up. In 2019, she realised that many people, especially women, wanted to join and work with her—she thought to herself that it would be a good idea, since ‘two heads are better than one’, as the saying goes.

"Many people, including the youth, single mothers, wanted something to do and I brought them on board. We decided to put in an effort together. Soon, our product was popular in the country.

"Before we knew it, people started exporting it because there was demand for our product abroad and in neighbouring countries,” Nyirasagamba says.

The product

You have probably seen Nyamiyaga Akanoze flour in grocery stores, food markets or even had it on the dinner table. Packaged in a distinctive white bag inscribed with Nyamiyaga Akanoze, the cassava flour became an instant hit, with many appreciating its quality.

Nyirasagamba says that the increase in demand was a result of improving the quality of the cassava product—thanks to the training she received from government agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders in the agro-processing industry.

"Through the capacity-building programmes, I gained more knowledge and skills to improve our product. We started with one product but after the training, we added more quality and grades to give consumers a variety to choose from, even in terms of price,” Nyirasagamba says.

Turning skins into ‘gold’

In 2019, Nyirasagamba got training from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), under the rural-urban nexus: Establishing a nutrient loop to improve city region food system resilience (RUNRES) project.

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The skills she acquired during the training became yet another turning point for her—turning what was considered as waste into gold and more revenue for the company.

Nyirasagamba was trained on recycling cassava peelings into animal feeds, which was added to the product catalogue of Nyamiyaga Akanoze

Company.

"They showed us that we can produce something else out of the peels, which we previously treated as trash. They taught us how to turn the peelings into animal feeds and with the support they gave us, more jobs were created,” she points out.

They started seeing demand for the animal feeds increase when it went on the market. People liked the feed and even started bringing their peelings to the factory, which in turn buys them.

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The same farmers who sell cassava and the peels to the factory buy the animal feeds, which creates a sustainable business model where everybody is a winner.

"Our feeds are an alternative to, let’s say, maize feeds. The maize can be used to feed people because people need food. We also noticed that our feed can serve as a full replacement of other animal feeds that could be expensive for ordinary farmers,” she says.

When they started selling to the communities, farmers gave them feedback that cows were producing more milk. Being a livestock farmer herself, Nyirasagamba says her cows became healthier when they started consuming their feeds.

Nyirasagamba says recycling the peelings also helped in conserving the environment because cassava peelings can be a nuisance if not disposed of properly.

Today, Nyamiyaga Akanoze is one of the renowned rural-based, women-owned agro-processing companies in Rwanda. Nyirasagamba attributes the success of the company to her persistence and continuous trying.

She encourages fellow women, especially in rural areas, to not resign to their fate because there is always an opportunity to explore in their respective communities.

Working together and combining resources is one way to do it, as it can often be challenging to achieve something on your own. With the help of others, synergies are created, leading to a successful outcome.

Nyirasagamba says that women in rural parts of the country should not condemn themselves to poverty by not even trying or resigning to their conditions, pointing out that even those looking to support you might not because they don’t see your effort.

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In her case, had she not set out to start, she wouldn’t have been noticed by the leadership and industry players who trained and supported her through her entrepreneurial journey.

"Today, I can say we wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t tried. Currently, we are 65 women working together. We don’t rely on our husbands to pay for us Mutuelle de sante or personal needs.

"We also have about 15 youths we work with who are also self-reliant. We have all been able to buy and own something out of what we do,” Nyirasagamba says, adding that they are currently looking to expand the output and product line.

Among other things, they are looking to add more cassava products, including Isombe, on the list, as they look to diversify.

According to Nyirasagamba, by the time they started off in 2018, they were producing three tonnes of cassava peels but they now produce 25 tonnes per month. Regarding the cassava flour, they started with 15 tonnes per month but today they produce more than 30 tonnes per month.