Aimée Claudine Uwamahoro did something that many may consider a risk—leave a well-paying job to go into business. The 43-year-old is the CEO of the Kigali-based Cocomod Limited, a company that tailors and sells African clothing, known as ‘kitenge’, with a blend of other materials such as cotton, denim, and silk, among others. She started her company in 2017 after putting some savings aside. Having worked for a number of companies for years, she needed something she could not only earn from, but also have a passion for. Uwamahoro believes that the mixture of ‘kitenge’ compliments an attire and brings out its richness and appearance. Although she now has expertise in fashion, she basically watched fashion tutorials on YouTube and shows from West Africa, and that is how she gained her skills. She does, however, plan to enrol for an online fashion course in April. Uwamahoro has expanded her business to interior decor, as this is something her clients requested for. She then bought a book from Europe about making interior design with a meaning and learned the basics from it. She decorates houses with a number of accessories such as lighting, curtains, beddings, chairs, table cloths, and also adjusts paintings to create new meaning. The interior designs also have a touch of African print. Her three-year-old business has gained clients and grown financially, and she is grateful that she’s been able to do all this without a bank loan. In 2018, she started exporting her designs to the US, Canada, and with time, to Belgium, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. She has hopes of expanding even further. So far, she has five permanent workers. One of her mixed print designs. Uwamahoro, a graduate of Social Work at Kigali Independent University (ULK), developed passion for ‘kitenge’ at a young age. While in primary school, she would steal her mother’s ‘kitenge’ and take it to school and wear it while cleaning the classroom every Friday afternoon. Even when her mother noticed this and punished her, she didn’t stop. Her mother then decided to buy her a ‘kitenge’ of her own, intensifying Uwamahoro’s love for the African fabric. How she started Having worked for almost five years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), six months at Department for International Development-DFID, and one year at Aberdeen Hotel, she felt it was time to start a business of her own. A table cloth she designed. When she had just started her business, the African fabric was mostly seen as an attire for mature people, or a cloth to wear for traditional functions, but she needed to prove to Rwandans that ‘kitenge’ can be styled in many ways and even be worn to work, or any other event, depending on how one accessorises and blends it. In the first year, she didn’t make many profits, and she had to prove that she was unique. Convincing people to buy her clothes was a challenge, and also the African garments were and are still more expensive, compared to other apparels, and so it wasn’t easy getting buyers at the start. Covid-19 hit her business and somehow affected her exports, and some of her local customers, especially at a time events were stopped. Nevertheless, she didn’t give up. “One of the things that excite me is seeing people wear my designs. Through my fashion journey, I have gained business networks, built new relationships worldwide, and travelled around the globe,” she says. Uwamahoro has also been able to attend many conferences, participated in fashion shows around the world, for instance, in Oklahoma in 2017, Addis Ababa in July 2018, and Paris African Fashion Reception (AFR) in October 2019. She has no doubt that this is just the beginning as more is yet to unveil. She is anticipating starting her own mass production factory next year.
