When I was still a very small boy, there was this game I used to play with my young sisters of guessing what was written on a product. The game involved holding something and asking another person to guess where it was made. In those days many of the quality possessions we had at home in Uganda were made in Germany, UK, or Thailand. China was yet to become the world’s producer of almost everything.

However, we were also aware of some local brands like the then famous NYTIL bed sheets whose material was quite distinct; it even had a name – Jinja. Primary level education was almost incomplete if it did not include the memorable school trip to Jinja in eastern Uganda.

Jinja was then considered the major industrial town in Uganda and school children often visited Kakira Sugar factory to see where the sugar came from, NYTIL for processing cotton, Nile Breweries to understand how beer was made (without tasting of course) and UGMC a company that made the then famous Tip Top Bread, among other things.

These thoughts all came back to me this week as I listened to Rwanda’s Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi as he opened the Made in Rwanda Expo at Gikondo on Wednesday. My mind drifted away and pondered on the challenges of growing a local brand from scratch. Like in many other places, locally made products are often seen to be of inferior quality and yet their quality may never improve if we do not support them.

Supporting these local products ought to start from the premise of we can and we do. That is why it is very important to expose young people to places where local products are manufactured through school trips so they can know from the start that not everything they see in their homes or in shops is imported.

Those involved in the manufacture of these local products also have to do their bit in terms of striving to improve the quality and distribution of their products. Do not just produce and hand over to a few wholesale buyers, try and lobby for your product to be in some major hotels, supermarkets, embassies and to find brand ambassadors that will push it to the next level.

It was encouraging to read that Nakumatt Supermarket which opened its third outlet in Rwanda (located in Kagugu) has pledged to source more local products in a bid to support Rwandan producers. The pledge does not mean only stocking the products in their Rwandan outlets but also other outlets in the region. In other words someone in Mombasa should be able to pick Rwandan products like Akabanga hot chilli sauce off the shelf the same way I pick Ugandan made Maganjo for my Kawunga/Ugali fix.

Rwandan producers should now be lobbying other big supermarket chains in the region to also stock some of these unique but quality brands on their shelves. The beauty here is that Rwandans can be found almost anywhere in the region and beyond and these are the ones that should serve as ambassadors for these products to catch on.

Other great ambassadors are the ones who always make it a point to carry something Rwandan when travelling out of the country. These unique products need to also be marketed a lot as gifts to our visitors for the brands to spread more. I remember when I visited Istanbul, Turkey in April, our tour guide made it a point to give each of us some Turkish coffee to carry back home. It would be nice if Rwandan tour operators found away to sell Rwandan products the same way. By ‘gifting’ visitors with say some of our best honey, tea or coffee to take back home.

The ongoing Made in Rwanda Expo is an effort to push Rwandan manufacturers to up their game and grow their brands more and more. Rwanda is lucky to be part of the huge East African Community market that is more than 150 million people strong. And that number does not even include the huge market that is the Democratic Republic of Congo.

However, we cannot patronise these local products if the quality or service is below par. During this year’s Umushyikirano or National Dialogue, President Paul Kagame reiterated his call for improved customer service by reminding Rwandans that good service is their right and not a favour. Mediocrity will simply not cut it.