At the age of 16, Antoinette Uwimana dropped out of school after failing to raise school fees. She was in Senior Three.

Twenty years later, Uwimana now 36, with four children has worked her way to the top and is recorgnised among the leading women of Musanze district in the Northern province.

"My parents could not pay for my school fees and I was forced to stay home. I felt bad and it was worse during holidays when my friends would return home,” she says as she recalls her past. Staying home meant that she was increasingly becoming a burden to her parents who could not afford to cater for the needs of a teenage girl.

This is when she started thinking of getting an odd job which could at least provide for her basic needs. She worked at a hair dressing salon.

"I acquired basic training and was soon employed as a hair dresser. I was paid on daily basis,” Uwimana said, adding that from her earnings, she started saving after learning that she could secure a loan once she opened an account with a bank, which she did in 1998. She used the money to open her own salon.

"I expanded the business and started employing other people. I could save over Rwf10, 000 daily,” she says.

Opening shop

After operating the salon business for 10 years, she decided to explore other opportunities. She ventured into wedding gowns and other attire both for men and women, and this marked the beginning of Blessing Shop, which is the go-to place for prospective brides and grooms in Musanze town. The business has become popular and now has clients from other districts.

"I am now an established businesswoman. I am comfortable and one lesson I have in life is that hard work pays. I would have settled for being a hairdresser but I did not and I thank God for the courage,” she said.

Uwimana has refused to let her modest education block her chances in life. She acquired ICT skills and now uses a computer in her business. She registers all her sales and uses the internet to communicate with her suppliers and surf the latest fashion trends.

She has now added laundry services to her business after realising that some people would prefer hiring wedding gowns to buying them.

"It was a serious challenge. I was always compelled to take the clothes to Kigali for cleaning. This proved both costly and time consuming and in some cases I failed to deliver on time,” she says.

"I secured another loan and bought a machine, hence the first in Musanze to offer laundry services using modern equipment,” she adds.

Uwimana did not stop at that. She has expanded to events and now offers decoration services for various events using Rwandan traditional material with a touch of culture and history.

Uwimana says she earns between Rwf500,000 and Rwf800,000 monthly depending the period.

"I have built a modern house worth Rwf30million and I have two other plots that I plan to develop,” she says.

She says she has managed to send her four biological children and three others she has since adopted to school.

Uwimana says her future target is to own a commercial complex on which she can set up her shop and do away with the inconveniences of renting.

"I am hopeful I will own a complex soon. My rapport with the banks is very good. My dream is to grow my business beyond Rwanda,” she says, adding that this will be possible given what she has so far achieved having started from zero.