OVO stands for ‘Ondernemers voor Ondernemers’ (Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs) and believes that small and medium enterprises are an important motor for the economy, welfare and employment opportunities in low and middle income countries. Their mission is to stimulate and strengthen social-economic development projects and initiatives. OVO is the link between Belgian companies, entrepreneurs and local business initiatives in Africa and selected countries in the development phase. Major efforts being made to transfer knowledge, skills and financial opportunities.

For more info, check their website: https://ondernemersvoorondernemers.be/

MusaNeza is derived from the Rwandese language and means: “you look good”. For one person to look good, one must feel good. One must love him/herself, one must love and respect others without prejudice. This is how MusaNeza was born as an idea to a young girl looking for her place in this world. 

Nowadays, people do not always have the possibility to show their proud African belongings through clothes. More specifically, there is a lack of affordable, local embedded and sustainable African clothing industries selling their clothes in Belgium.  MusaNeza wants to become the better Zara for African clothes and stands for three core values: sustainability, empowerment and authenticity, and specifically in that order. MusaNeza wants to bring out fashionable clothes that are made of fabric, produced while respecting the environment. They strive therefore to collaborate with manufacturers based in Africa in order to further empower the economy there, but also to keep our carbon-footprint at a minimal size.  

The goal is to start a Spring collection next year. Selling the clothes would be done online and in shops / hotels. Currently, a small team of OVO volunteers is working on the project: launching step-by-step a new and sustainable African fashion house. A team of motivated project students can put in practice their academic know-how. That way, chances of starting up and future scaling up the business can be improved.

The preparatory work consists of:

– Set-up market survey and integrate learnings from existing customer contacts and sales in order to better define customer expectations, profiles, segments. 

-Challenge / develop marketing plan 2022 and beyond with special focus on customer journey, communication and optimal use of social media.

-Develop a proposal on setting up an accounting system.

-Challenge/ further develop logistics model: supply chain, production, shipment: practical, timing, legal & tax aspects.

-Challenge/ further develop the standard operating procedure for the seamstress(es) in order for it to be well aligned with the logistics model.

The on-site work contains:

-Support implementation of local sales (e.g. hotels in Kigali), marketing and communication 

-Turn recommendations about the logistic system into reality.