Hawa Chloe Niyigena, Whiz Upp Founder, turned a small fruit-processing business into a cross-border success. Cross-border trade in Africa is rarely about just having a good product. For most small businesses, the real hurdle is compliance, meeting multiple national and regional standards that determine whether, for example, a fruit puree clears customs or gets turned away. Ms. Hawa Chloe Niyigena, founder of Whiz Upp, a fruits and vegetables processing firm based in Western Rwanda, knows this only too well. For years, her business remained small, boxed in by limited knowledge of quality standards and little access to broader markets, especially across borders. That changed when she joined a partnership programme between TradeMark Africa (TMA) and the Rwanda Standards Board (RSB). Workers at Whiz Upp package fresh juices for local and cross-border markets (2025). Through the support, she was trained on food safety requirements, certification processes, and business management, including bookkeeping and saving strategies. After participation in trade exhibitions in Kigali and Democratic Republic of Congo, Whiz Upp began expanding its market reach. The impact was immediate: weekly sales jumped fivefold, from $160 to $800. She now sells across borders and employs 11 people, up from four. “Before joining the programme, I had very few customers. But, after attending trade fairs and exhibitions, I met more buyers,” Ms. Niyigena said. Whiz Upp is one of the 13 Rwandan firms that began exporting under the Export Capability programme; in total, 40 firms were supported to enhance their export readiness. According to David...

In a significant boost to Rwanda's export sector, TradeMark Africa's 10-year Export Development Programme (EDP), launched in 2012, has nurtured over five new million-dollar exporters. Funded by USAID, UKaid, and the Finnish Government, the programme aimed to increase Rwanda's exports by 17% annually, focusing on high-potential sectors like horticulture, ICT, and crafts. By the end of 2022, the EDP targeted $1.2 million in export revenues for the 40 participating firms, with a goal of $3 million by mid-2023. When Sakina Usengimana the CEO of Afri Foods, joined the Export Development Programme (EDP), she didn't know what to expect. Looking back, it was a decision that changed her life. In the spirit of contributing to Rwanda’s ambition of increasing exports by 17% annually, TradeMark Africa (TMA) embarked on a 10-year EDP initiative in 2012 (implemented in two phases) to help exporters access new markets, with funding from USAID, UKaid and the Finnish Government. The second phase which began in 2017/2018 the programme was implemented in collaboration with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), and comprised 40 participating firms, 16 of which were women-led while 12 were new entrants in the export business. It focused on high export potential sectors like horticulture, ICT, and crafts. TMA, in collaboration with Dalberg Advisors, a business development advisory firm, provided technical assistance. Diane Sayinzoga, Head of Special Economic Zones and Exports at RDB, emphasised the timeliness of the intervention in supporting Rwandan exports. “The programme was well aligned with the mandate of RDB, which is to...

An atmosphere of calm welcomes you as you enter the lobby of the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA). This wasn’t always the case, according to Francois Gatete, the Director for Information Systems at RURA. Before 2019, RURA, which regulates all public utilities in Rwanda, struggled with the mundane, time-consuming manual processes of issuing out licenses, resulting in a crowded and chaotic lobby. To understand how complicated the scenario was, imagine this: a vendor would initiate a license request, but the finance department, trapped in an information void, couldn’t know, or track the progress of the application. This opaqueness made the process frustrating and inefficient, and many traders would visit RURA offices daily to follow up on the all-important piece of paper. David Butera, Programme Manager, TradeMark Africa (TMA), pointed out that a scoping exercise that sought to identify and resolve trade barriers in Rwanda highlighted RURA as one of the agencies that was still using manual processes; with traders saying this was a big problem that made trading difficult and costly. “We used to have silos in the application chain as there was no way for a team, say, finance to gain visibility on the status of the license application in the pipeline,” Gatete recalls of the disjointed processes. Trying to manually serve over 20,000 businesses led to many deadlocks both for RURA and the businesses. Innocent Twahirwa, who runs Jali Transport, remembers submitting thousands of paper forms and making numerous follow-up visits to RURA offices to get licenses for...

Growing up in Nyagatare, Rwanda, Rosette Cyarikora's childhood memories are replete with the sight of her mother skilfully producing ghee. This led her to recognise its potential for creating a sustainable family income. When she came of age, Rosette along with her friends, began packaging and selling ghee across the border in Uganda. Despite their entrepreneurial spirit, they faced legal challenges and confiscations of their merchandise, due to operating across the border without the requisite authorisation. However, their determination persisted. Their perseverance paid off when in 2016, they were introduced to the "Making Trade Work for Women" programme, launched by Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe, TradeMark Africa, and funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). This initiative, sought to empower women entrepreneurs and foster an inclusive business environment. As part of the programme, Rosette and 19 other women formed the Girubuzima Cooperative. With the programme’s support, they expanded their product line to include ghee, buttermilk, and skin cream. Starting with just a litre of milk each and sheer determination, the cooperative thrived and by 2019, they were processing over 300 litres of milk weekly and selling fresh milk and dairy products in a bustling shop near a busy bus terminal. Thanks to the programme’s market linkages, they now export their products to Uganda, and were recently recognised and awarded a trophy for their innovation in dairy products, packaged in attractive, recyclable containers. Looking to the future, the women of Girubuzima are saving funds to purchase land and construct a factory, aiming to expand their...

The IOTA Foundation has stated that the initial stage of its cooperation with an East African business to facilitate paperless trading in the area has been completed successfully. The Foundation partnered with TradeMark Africa on the initiative, which aimed to modernize the continent’s supply chain’s inefficient and expensive paper-based procedures. This technique was substituted by a more effective digital approach system on the basis of IOTA’s ledger data platform, the Tangle. The Foundation collaborated with the Nairobi, Kenya-headquartered business to develop an interconnectivity technological framework that allows East African companies to “interact in a clear, safe, and immediate manner, both between themselves and with global associates.” TradeMark Africa (TMA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting regional commercial development. According to their calculations, a single transaction in Africa necessitates the completion of 96 paper based documents on average. The situation is far worse for exporters. They misplace papers because they have to distribute them physically, which contributes to inefficiencies, which are usually always pricey. Along with TMA, the IOTA Foundation is working to alter this. The Trade Logistics Information Pipeline (TLIP), which centered on the Kenyan flower business, was their initial effort. It’s among Kenya’s most important industries, and is also one of Africa’s largest. Kenya exports around 180,000 tonnes of flowers each year, or nearly seven million stems each day. Because this sort of product is very perishable, having an effective and robust distribution chain is important. This is something that TLIP has already been giving to farmers and exporters. “In...

International trade, however, has a huge part to play in keeping the UK’s florists stocked with fresh cut flowers. The second top import market to the UK for flowers is Kenya, which supplies just over 8 percent of British-sold flowers, or 10,000 tons, worth not far off £67 million. Cut flowers account for 25% of all Kenyan imports to the UK. The Institute of Export & International Trade has been working with donor organization TradeMark Africa (TMA) to implement a ‘digital trade corridor’ between the UK and Kenya to help simplify trade between the two nations. The initiative, called the ‘UK-Kenya Trade Logistics Information Pipeline’ (TLIP), aims to eliminate documentation and introduce better visibility in the supply chains flowing between the UK and Kenya. This initiative builds upon on the Kenya-UK Economic Partnership Agreement, which was signed in December 2020. TLIP's system uses blockchain technology to link all those in a supply chain together, enabling faster logistics and easier trading. Marco Forgione, director general of the IOE&IT, said: “This Valentine’s Day when you were giving your loved one a beautiful bouquet of flowers, consider the journey they have taken to put that smile on their face. Around nine different organizations are involved with the transportation of flowers from Kenya before they enter your home and all of these actions in the supply chain require documentation to move the goods along on their journey. “The trade corridor we are creating will provide more transparency and enable all actors to view the...

It’s a long way from Makerere University in Uganda’s capital Kampala to the rural district of Yumbe, in the north-west of the country, bordering South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Approximately 600 KM. The two places are also separated by climate, topography and, significantly, socio-economic status. It’s fitting then, that they are drawn together by an exciting new enterprise started by Makerere academics, which they hope will bring income and employment to their northern compatriots. Makerere University is the oldest institution of higher learning in East Africa and has a prestigious reputation. It sits on top of one of Kampala’s hills, overlooking the city and is home to about 38,000 students including post-graduates. Standing tall over the campus is the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio-engineering, which is responsible for the new project. It all started with the Food Technology and Business Incubation Centre (FTBIC), an arm of the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio-engineering, which nurtures business start-ups. The FTBIC is funded by the government and is an attempt to link the academic subject with the real world. At the same time, the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio-engineering also houses FONUS (Food and Nutrition Solutions Ltd), a business providing consultancy from academic experts in the agriculture, nutrition and health sectors to local communities. In 2013, FONUS experts were in Yumbe District when they noticed the proliferation of mango trees growing wild. The trees were laden with growing fruit and the academics discovered that...

Co-operatives open opportunities for Rwanda cross-border traders. Driving south from Kigali to the Burundi border, you might think that Nemba is one of the luckier border towns in Rwanda. A good road connects its unusually quiet trading centre to the nation’s busy capital, and the journey lasts only an hour, unlike the winding, up-hill distances to other border towns. Surely no one in Nemba buying goods from Kigali to sell to Burundi, would have a hard time running a quick and easy cross-border business? Yet for women traders such as Benigne Maliboli, who sells a bottled local brew to Burundi, reduced transport costs to and from the capital did little to alleviate the gender-specific barriers to her cross-border trade.  Like many women traders, she lacked awareness of cross-border traders’ rights, rules and regulations as legislated by the East African Community. Today, thanks to TradeMark Africa (TMA) funded Rwandan NGO, Profemme/Twese Hamwe, the women know better. “We now know that there is someone at the border who can assist small-time cross-border traders, who gives us information we need about both sides of the border. Before, we were not aware that such services existed at the border,” Benigne Maliboli says of her newly formed co-operative. Many women traders purposefully do not register as such in order to bypass what they see as complications, and end up paying exorbitant bribes to keep their informal trade going. According to experts however, as informal as this trade is, it contributes significantly to the East African...

Coffee and tea are Rwanda’s largest agricultural exports, but while most tea is grown on large plantations, coffee is produced by thousands of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on their crop. Coffee exports, therefore, can really make a difference to the lives of Rwandan farmers Connecting business to business and boosting Rwanda’s exports “We love Rwandan coffee,” a Rwandan newspaper quoted a Starbucks vice-president as saying when he visited the country in May 2015. The executive and his team, apparently there to negotiate an increased order, had just paid a courtesy call to President Paul Kagame - a hint perhaps of the importance of coffee exports to the Rwandan economy. Coffee and tea are Rwanda’s largest agricultural exports, but while most tea is grown on large plantations, coffee is produced by thousands of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on their crop. Coffee exports, therefore, can really make a difference to the lives of Rwandan farmers. According to Rwanda’s National Agriculture and Export Development Board (NAEB), in 2014 Rwanda’s green (unroasted) coffee exports were worth almost US$60 million, up on the previous year and buoyed by good global prices. Buyers generally prefer green coffee, allowing them to roast and blend to their own specifications. However, while a container of green beans is sold for about US$8,000, a container of roasted, ground and packaged coffee is worth 12 times that amount. No wonder then, that the coffee sector, in its export strategy, has prioritised value addition activities, such as roasting and packaging...

It’s a busy lunchtime at the Grand Legacy Hotel in Kigali and Vincent Safari, Technical Adviser with TradeMark Africa (TMA) in Rwanda, is attending a meeting of Central Corridor member states. The Central Corridor is a transport highway used by trucks to carry goods between the port of Dar es Salaam and the states of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Vincent Safari is attending the meeting not only as a TMA technical advisor, but also as coordinator of the Rwandan National Monitoring Committee on non-tariff barriers, a group made up of representatives from the government, private sector and civil society and chaired by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Safari explains that although Rwanda has had a National Monitoring Committee since 2008, it was not effective because there was no national strategy in place to eliminate non-tariffs barrier (NTBs) and no full-time coordinator. In 2011 TMA became involved, assisting the Ministry of Trade and Industry to revamp the National Monitoring Committee so that it could become a driving force to eliminate NTBs at both national and regional level. “Before TMA got involved it used to take about 15 to 17 days to get to Kigali from either Dar es Salaam or Mombasa,” explains Safari. “Now from Dar it is between three and six days. And from Mombasa between five and seven days.” This significant reduction was achieved through a series of major interventions that emanated from partnerships between TMA and East Africa’s governments, including Rwanda....