From Law to Maize Milling: a successful change!

Rwanda’s Felicien Mutalikanwa started his career as a lawyer, but after many years behind the desk decided that he wanted to do something else, something completely unrelated to his current position.

Felicien didn’t let his lack of farming experience stand in the way of his dreams. “I don’t need to know about farming. I don’t need to know about milling. I can hire professional services and people to take care of this,” he says proudly, having built his company from the ground up to where it is today. And that is in the middle of a massive scheme that will see Minimex converting some 700 hectares of marshland into prime farming land for maize. To achieve this dream, Felicien needed help, so he applied to PSI (Private Sector Investment) for financial assistance. Their aim is to help entrepreneurs and businesspeople like Felicien who are willing to put in the effort and hard work needed to make a success of their economic dreams.

While Felicien struggled with regular banks and financial assistance, PSI was more than willing to grant his application because Minimex met its requirements. Because of this, Minimex has grown substantially and despite Felicien’s limited milling knowledge and experience, he has secured the rights to supply maize to Rwanda’s biggest brewery, Bralirwa Brewery. This success has seen him being able to obtain funding to build a factory for Minimex, and in the process stimulate his community’s economic position thanks to the jobs he has created. And Felicien isn’t stopping there… He expects to create upwards of 500 permanent jobs in the near future and expand his business to attract more foreign investment to his country.