Sina has built a huge business empire from a small bakery

sina showing some seeds

When he started out as a small baker in 1983, many people wrote him off as a joker. The then 20-year-old had started the small bakery with about $50 (about Rwf33,000 today) and raw materials from his parent’s farm.

Many thought he would not last a year in the then exclusive territory of largely old men, who had a lot of money. But he dared to dream and ‘forced’ himself into this exclusive club of older entrepreneurs.

Today, Sina Gérard is a respected model commercial farmer and agricultural produce processor,  in Nyirangarama, Musanze, Northern Province and has no regrets for having tried his fortunes at business.

Sina’s simple beginnings did not stop him from building a huge business empire that involves agro-processing and a restaurant chain.  

Growth and expansion

As the bakery stabilised and started bringing in good returns, Sina expanded and ventured into fruit juice-making, taking advantage of the numerous family fruit trees. With time, he realised that he could earn more money by applying advanced technology to process farm produce. So, in 1999, using savings from his business, he partnered with local farmers, bought juice-making equipment and also invested in juice preservation research.

Like he predicted, the move didn’t disappoint, which encouraged him to diversify his enterprise. That is how he started a piggery project, cattle, goat and rabbit rearing units, plus wine production.

The ‘never-say-die’, entrepreneur is now a proud owner of Urwibutso Enterprises, which runs a chain of restaurants, a water bottling company and biscuit and chilli-making factories. 

The former ordinary baker, who originally employed one person, now employs 280 full-time workers and about 3,000 others depend on his businesses indirectly.

He also gives farmers, hybrid cows, seedlings and trains them free of charge to make them better farmers.

Because of Sina’s business acumen, many people think that he went to some of the top business schools in the West. The no-nonsense processor is a self-taught, determined and result-oriented entrepreneur; that is his big plan.

“The reason I wake up every morning and work with zeal from morning to sunset is because I have an obligation to contribute to nation building,” he says.

Sina is now focusing on driving agricultural change in rural communities. Always the innovator, he has started producing strawberries rather than staple foods, and growing exotic fruits, such as grapes and apples for wine production. He also plans to expand his business empire into the export industry.