Susan Asiimwe is a mother of three who is very passionate about business especially importation of products. Despite having started with little capital that could have discouraged her from following her passion, she didn’t let go of it.
“I started my own business in 2016 with just too little capital at hand, nevertheless I was determined to be accountable for it and in 2017 I joined the Rwanda Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs (CWE-Rwanda) that gave me trainings on how to run and manage my business.” said Asiimwe.
The fact that the government of Rwanda offers opportunities and empowers women to be financially independent, that encouraged her more to concentrate on her business and meet others in the business community thus enabling her expand her business.
She revealed that Genuine Super Stores, imports and distributes consumer goods from different countries like India, Egypt and Malawi for Sugar, once the products are in the country, they are distributed to wholesalers who in turn also sell to the retailers and then to the consumers.
Genuine Super Stores is located in Kigali’s busiest commercial hub opposite Kigali City Market complex.
According to Asiimwe, the business sector plays a significant role to support the economy and that the government offers support to women to starting their own businesses which translates into a sustainable development.
Challenges along the way
The entrepreneur explains that the most challenging part she faced was the stereotypes in business where she was discouraged by people just basing on the fact that she was a young woman. People kept telling her how impossible it was for her to make it in the sector as a woman.
The other challenge was having very limited working capital given the fact that the business she was venturing into required a lot more, meaning she had to struggle for the first and second year, fortunately was able to rise some additional finances to enable her business to expand.
Then the issue of managing stock as the business expanded, but that also worked out better having gotten some training from the Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs, it took three years to cope up running her business well.
Asiimwe explains that in years to come she sees herself among key players in this trade as she plans to leap higher but also focus on importation of needed goods and products, and leave the distribution to others.
As an inspiration to the young girls, she has an advice to pass on to them not fear starting out something even with the little you can get as long as the commitment is there. “Be confident to explore because opportunities are there.”
She further plans to expand her business in areas that can impact more people.
Am very thankful to the Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs, they have impacted me with skills to run my own business, through trainings am better now on how to run my finances and gained more confidence to deal and negotiate with banks when I require their services.” She underlined.
