The leap in demand for Covid-19 related products came as a lifeline to some local companies
As the country put all hands-on-deck to control the spread of the virus and save lives of its people, there was an urgent need to locally produce life-saving products such as face-masks, hand sani-tisers and soap to keep people safe.
The leap in demand for Covid-19 related products came as a lifeline to some local companies, many of which were on their death-bed, as a sizable number of them delved into producing the much needed products.
Production of Covid-19-related products, among them facemasks, sanitisers, soap and installation of public hand-washing stations have boosted jobs creation in the last half of the year.
The year started on a disruptive note in March, with many people especially workers living from hand-to-mouth losing their jobs as the whole country went into a three-month lockdown, but it was not all doom throughout the year.
As the country put all hands-on-deck to control the spread of the virus and save lives of its people, there was an urgent need to locally produce life-saving products such as face-masks, hand sanitisers and soap to keep people safe.
The leap in demand for Covid-19 related products came as a lifeline to some local companies, many of which were on their death-bed, as a sizable number of them delved into producing the much needed products.
Janet Nkubana’s garment making company, was struggling just like many during the first few months after Covid-19 hit the country, but as soon as government gave local companies a green light to start making face masks, they the started producing them, and it has now turned around their fortunes.
The company has employed up to 1,624 women who make facemasks, with each earning a minimum of Rwf120, 000 per month.
“We started off immediately making face masks, we employ up to 1,624 women who have small sowing machines, we had the infrastructure so it was easy for us, and we benefited from the partnerships we had with MasterCard Foundation” said Janet Nkubana, managing director and co-founder of Gahaya Links.
The company has already made more 800,000 face masks, which she says are sold through strategic partnerships they have created with corporate companies like banks, embassies, hospitals and schools, where the branded ones go for Rwf600 while others are sold at Rwf400.
“We are happy that we were able to provide jobs to such a large number of women, so they can be able to feed their families in this tough year” she noted.
This is just one of the many local companies in different sectors that turned a profit from an unfortunate year, creating jobs in the process.
Data from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) indicated that the country recorded a 16 per cent increase in jobs between May and August this year.