Sanit Wing is a processing and manufacturing industrial company that produces a variety of oils, cosmetics and soaps from raw materials, mostly avocados. We use the green gold variety, the best quality avocado from Africa to make our products. We also sell our avocados directly to customers and we can ship to any part of the world. At Sanit Wing our core business is avocado value addition; we process avocado into pure avocado oil, avocado hair cream, avocado vaseline and avocado soap. We have also invested in avocado farming with a goal of 3,000,000 new avocados by 2025 as our future sustainability strategy.
“It has been 7 years since I started my business and when I look back from when I started, the journey looks very long. Over that period, there have been different types of support but the financial uplift from the GoGettaz competition, Generation Africa Fellowship Program(GAFP) and AGRA in general has been very significant for my business,” Alexandre Nshimiyimana, CEO and Founder, Sanit Wing reminisces on his entrepreneurial journey.
Before Covid19, the business cycle was to sell, save and then re-invest and it was very difficult when I tried to access loans and financial support from financial institutions. They only gave small amounts of between 10,000 to 15,000 which made it hard to scale up. But after the award by GoGettaz, things have changed, it is now me against investors. What I have learnt with all these investors reaching out is that I have to think carefully about who I want to work with. How is our interaction? What are the terms? Is there another investor with a better offer or better terms? I now can’t complain about access to finances, I have moved to another level; investor preparedness.
Growth at Sanit Wing
We have surpassed the projections which we had 2 years ago by over two times. We are currently developing two new products and we decided to halt the production of our other products to give room for new product launches by the end of 2022. We shall be making bamboo bottles and packaging materials. Earlier, before 2022, we used to do our deliveries using bicycles and we could only produce 300 kilograms a day. Today, we are processing up to 4 tonnes a day. We have grown more than 10 times and all thanks to the GoGettaz Award and the Generation Africa Fellowship Program. Our website visits and followers on social media channels have increased to up to 500 times from what we had before. Sanit Wing has also employed 10 permanent employees and 32 casual workers.
About the Generation Africa Fellowship Program
Through the guidance of my GAFP mentor, Dr. Hannington Odame, we were able to map out the whole business and indicated what we wanted to achieve in the short term and in the long term. After mapping out the business needs we settled on sustainability; how do we maximize and sustain our impact and our footprint? Who recognises when we plant those trees and how do we make money from it?
What next for Sanit Wing?
In the next one – two years, Sanit Wing will focus on expanding the reach of our avocado value addition production and taking our environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions such as the bamboo packaging products. We are already working with some investors who will help us get the business to the next level.
Interviewed by Juliet Hinga
