Aniflostandards Ltd: A business to improve lives and give back to the community

The company Aniflostandards Ltd is the brainchild of two recently-graduated college students determined to use their creativity and entrepreneurship skills to improve their lives and give back to the community in Rwanda, their motherland.

Anita Umutoni and Florence Mukundwa are recent graduates of the Akilah Institute for Women, a college that offers a leadership and hospitality management course. They dared to take risks by starting a business while they were still in college.

Their business idea developed when they were working at a hotel in Kigali, where Anita was a receptionist and Florence a chef. “We sat down and thought: what we can do to improve our life and help our community? We found that we can help local women by using our creativity and a few materials we have, knowledge, and skills,” says Ms. Mukundwa.

“In addition to what my colleague says, this idea came up while we [started learning entrepreneurship] in our class. We really enjoyed it, and we thought we can start a small thing. As I and my colleague were working, we saved a little bit money and then [said] we can start [a] small business to benefit from it and give back to our community,” adds Ms. Umutoni. “There are unemployed women who have skills; those are women we are working with.”

Aniflostandards Ltd founders come up with ideas and design products, then the women employed make them .Their products and services include various types of bags, cloths, handcrafts and house decorations.

These motivated ladies market their business via the Internet, especially through social media, as well as word of mouth, and when they are hosted on local radio shows. According to their Facebook page, their company’s mission is providing excellent products with an everlasting touch of quality.

“The advice I can give to young people and entrepreneurs is just to not [fear] making a step. Because my colleague and I, the way we started [the] business, we really had… little money. We said that we can do something…we hope that in coming years it will be growing up and [we can] do some other things and get far,” Ms. Umutoni explains.

Ms. Mukundwa told  Vijana FM that one cannot know the challenge that he or she has not yet started. “When we are doing this small business, it gives us an overview of the big business. When we have a big business, we will know how to manage it,” she adds. “You cannot get far without having a vision; this is business [came about] from having a vision.”

These courageous ladies’ message to African youth is to work hard and be creative. They acknowledge that there are challenges, but there are also ways to overcome them.

Watch the video interview below;

Anita and Florence talk