G-YEDIDIA

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G-YEDIDIA: The best sub-titles are short, informative and catchy. Food for everyone!

Kigali, RwandaKigali, Rwanda
Year Founded:
2015
Organization type: 
for profit
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

The project aims at reducing food insecurity by processing maize that is usually lost due to seasonal large harvests. Maize will be processed into nutritious,delicious cornflakes with long shelf-life as reliable food for everyone, any time, and everywhere: helping starving people to survive.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if those kids starving in schools would get a chance to eat these all (most of essential nutrients) in one cornflake packs at least once at school?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

The project aims at reducing food insecurity caused by post harvest losses of corn and poor distribution of harvest in needy areas. Corn is grown in great quantities locally, in seasons. But due to short term storage and high costs of distribution that heavy road, large quantities are lost. This affects the supply of maize on the course of the year: not all people benefit from that seasonal harvest, people starve, even growers sometimes.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

Corn is grown in great quantities locally seasonally. The project processes the extra harvested corn into delicious, ready to eat and nutritious cornflakes. These cornflakes less weighs, easily transported and have a longer shelf-life but also at low prices since all materials are available locally. They can be sold locally anytime even in drought seasons but also they can be exported to less privileged countries such as Burundi, eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa and others. This significantly reduce the number of people that wake up and sleep hungry. Our company will ensure that products are available anytime because of the prolonged shelf-life, supply on markets will be continuous.

Awards

We are just starting.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

Imagine those kids that wake up and go to school empty stomach, families that are unable to buy pricy maize or maize flour because they are scarce. They are scarce because one season they were harvested in plenty and consumed and some lost. Here comes a thought of how can they get maize product, how to keep maize for long time to consume in such time; therefore, the idea of cornflakes was born. They will be able to buy a maize product at low price that kids will like, the product that will offer them almost all the needed nutrients. As the products less weighs and well packaged, it will be possible to manufacture for external markets, that it to say neighboring countries and people from far.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

We are just beginning and in need of external investment to accelerate the activities.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

Starting this business, we expect to make it a household first in Rwanda in four years. With the use of marketing through radio and local TV channels and as Rwanda is small, it will be easier to make it known. Thereafter we will start to export our product to Burundi; similar to Rwanda we will use the same strategy of strong marketing. And in 10 years we expect that we will be selling to eastern D.R. Congo and East African countries in general.
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

This is a for profit business, it uses locally available raw materials at low cost, simple to process and add value to agricultural product, so getting a profit from selling. We expect to grow the business first locally here in Rwanda, the money gotten from selling in home country will be used to expand to external markets. Cornflakes will be manufactured in Rwanda, in one location and distributed to markets: production costs are low.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

understanding the marketplace for this project. Most of cornflakes products sold here are imported from distant countries such as South Africa and European countries; this makes them very expensive and unavailable to large market. Our business will be different in that it sell at low cost and be available to many. Our cornflakes will be also fortified with milk and vegetables; so that those hungry people may depend on them for food for well-being. This is food for all! That is why initially we will ensure partnerships with schools, hospitals, hotels and supermarkets.
Team

Founding Story

By mechanization and land consolidation programs implemented by the government of Rwanda, there was a huge increase in harvest of maize, unfortunately most of it was lost afterwards. One day I was having fun with my friends at one fancy hotel here and was surprised when my friend ordered cornflakes: made in South Africa and spent 5000 Rwandan Francs. I was perplexed! And since I’m doing Food Science and Technology at college, one day we studied how to make cornflakes and this idea of stormed my mind.

Team

The business is composed of me as (1)CEO soon graduating in Food Science and Technology, (2)Director of operations my class colleague who specialized in breakfast cereals, (3)Manager of marketing and Finance a graduate of Business Administration, and (4) 4 technicians to operate machines that were trained. All of them are full-time employed. We plan that as we grow up after 1year we will increase the number of technicians to 50 as the market expands; add 3 accountants and 10 drivers for distribution. As the business expands we will employ staff in charge of sales&marketing in each new market: 1sales manager, 3 marketing staff and 2 accountants in each area.
Background
Please confirm how you heard about the Unilever Awards:

Social Media

Please confirm your role in the initiative (eg Founder/co-Founder) and your organisational title:

Foubder and CEO

Which of the 8 UN Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals) pre-selected for this competition does your solution relate most closely to? [select all that apply]

No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Responsible Consumption and Production.

Leadership and the Unilever Awards
Please provide examples of any previous entrepreneurial initiatives you have pioneered.

I created G-YEDIDIA as a business that makes and sells Stevia bread. A low calorie bread that is

sweet. The project got an award from African Innovation Prize and is growing.

Beyond your existing team, who else are you working with to achieve your objectives, eg partners, advisors, mentors?

We are currently partnering with my lecturers at University of Rwanda to produce a more

competitive product on international market.
Partnership with supermarkets to put our products on shelves, with schools to feed kids but also provide health education and entrepreneurship.
WE are currently working with INKOMOKO a business incubator in mentoring, market research, and business development.

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