URWIBUTSO COMPANY

In Nyarangarama, between Kigali and Ruhengeri, Gérard Sina runs the private company Urwibutso, an estate specializing in agricultural and livestock activities, which extends over several hills in the vicinity. What do they do? Fruit horticulture (passion fruit, pineapple, strawberries, bananas...), but also vegetables (peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes), ornamental plants (flowers) and even trials of vanilla and bissap (hibiscus flowers), all integrated with a juice and jam processing unit that you can visit. In addition to the cultivation of cereals (wheat, corn, sorghum), a variety of livestock are raised (cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, poultry, fish farming and beekeeping). It is well known that the motto " Nothing is lost, everything is transformed" is applied to the letter. Thus, cereal crops are used to produce pellets for livestock, rabbits are raised above the fish ponds, which allows them to gain ground and feed the fish with their excrement... Ducks and geese share the ponds where the tilapia are swarming. The crops of small vegetables (peppers, among others) are established on racks or in old tires hung above other crops, always to make profitable the space so rare in Rwanda... And that's not all: to mobilize workers and stabilize his production of pineapples, maracujas (passion fruit) and other fruits, grown by independent farmers, Gérard Sina builds schools and health centers, and thus participates in the human as well as economic development of his region. A small doughnut seller in the 1980s, Gérard Sina has become a businessman with a reputation as the head of an agri-food empire. He makes Nyirangarama, his hometown, live, and here, everything or almost everything belongs to him (the gas station, the church, the bakery, the restaurants, the stores and even a museum... in his honor). A bit megalomaniacal and paternalistic, Gerard Sina even wants to build a university here so that "his" students will be the best and employed in large international groups. In his roadside store, it is possible to buy juice, chili oil (the famous Akabanga, present on all the tables of Rwanda!), jams, wines and liqueurs made from fruits, natural honey, etc., but also other products, because his store is at the same time a bakery, a pastry shop, a grocery store and a restaurant!