Maryse Mbonyumutwa is attempting to put Rwanda on the map as the next destination for fashion and apparel sourcing.
The CEO and founder of Pink Mango, a Kigali-based manufacturer, is intent on pushing the country to the front of the pack as global brands look to diversify their sourcing portfolios. She’s also working on a complete overhaul—a total rebrand—of the apparel sourcing model, which has for decades seen worker wellbeing come in last on the list of priorities.
Nestled between Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the central African nation isn’t known for apparel production. Unlike countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, which have been building out the necessary industrial infrastructure to compete on a global scale for some time, Rwanda is largely a clean slate.
“That was the big bet that we took—there is no history of garment industry in Rwanda; it’s a smaller country, we are not cotton growers,” Mbonyumutwa told Sourcing Journal. But as a Rwandan native and an apparel industry veteran who managed sourcing for international brands for two decades, she recognized the country’s potential when she established Pink Mango in 2019.
Rwanda perfectly encapsulates what she believes is one of Africa’s most attractive traits: its purity. It’s a “blank page,” Mbonyumutwa said, noting that it’s “probably the last territory where you can start from scratch—where it’s easy to build a model rather than to have to undo ways of doing.” Environmentally conscious factories can be constructed thoughtfully from the ground up, instead of retrofitted to comply with governmental regulations and brand expectations, for example.
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She also perceived an opportunity to develop an industry that benefits workers and the surrounding community. “We can develop a business model that is anchored in really understanding the needs of the local workforce and the people who work in the in the factory,” she added. “Our industry is very often accused of neglecting the people that are at the end of the chain.”
Mbonyumutwa saw that reality underscored with her own eyes. Pink Mango was originally established as a joint venture with China-based C&D Inc., but the firms parted ways last year. After establishing several facilities and building up a workforce of 5,000, the entrepreneur said a “misalignment in strategy and approach—where C&D wanted to replicate the infrastructure and processes that brought them success in the far east,” led her to walk away.
Now, Mbonyumutwa manages two facilities with a combined workforce of 1,000.
“I realized that they neglected the importance of cultural integration,” she said of C&D. The partnership didn’t take into account the unique needs of Rwandan workers or reflect Mbonyumutwa’s desire to undo the ills of the traditional manufacturing model, from long hours and high production quotas to low wages and scant benefits for workers.
“When you put one and one together, it’s a labor-intensive industry,” and those charged with carrying out that labor should be a primary focus, she believes.
In addition to subscribing to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, Pink Mango has operated under its own philosophy of “Ubuntu”—a South African term that refers to a motto that persists, in some form, across the continent. The meaning can be summed up as, “I am because we are,” Mbonyumutwa said. “It’s an African philosophy of solidarity,” she explained—a commitment to community and the greater good.
With Ubuntu in mind, Pink Mango piloted several programs designed to benefit workers, from providing free daily meals to establishing a nursery for children. The group has also launched a subsidized grocery shop, giving employees access to lower-cost food and essentials. With global economies facing lingering inflation and geopolitical tensions further impacting prices, the program has become a critical source of support for workers, Mbonyumutwa said.
“With Pink Mango, I’m thinking of this as a very long-term impact investment—I’m in Rwanda, I have no intention of following the next cheap production location,” she added. “It’s really about building a sustainable industry that will not only serve the global export economy, but also local and regional, because there is a whole market here.”
In order to tap into that market—and give African creatives a platform for global reach—Mbonyumutwa founded her own lifestyle brand, dubbed Asantii, in 2022. The e-commerce venture brings together a team of designers from 12 African nations, including Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Angola, and its products are manufactured at one of Pink Mango’s Rwanda facilities—an upscale atelier that is open for business to other brands as well.
“We are trying to promote materials, fabrics and accessories from the continent,” the founder said, noting that she hopes to see the Asantii platform and its burgeoning production hub become both a resource for African creatives and a beacon for producers from across the globe.
“We are talking to as many suppliers as possible to attract them to come and invest in the region, so that we can have a supply chain as close as possible and reduce the dependency also on imports from China,” she added.
While Pink Mango’s core business, which trades heavily in outerwear, relies heavily on imported technical fabrics and components, Mbonyumutwa believes Africa is taking promising steps toward developing some regional verticalization. Today, the manufacturer sources most of its materials from Africa, including cotton from Egypt and woven raffia from Madagascar.
And with Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire making up the continent’s most prolific cotton producers, and countries like Kenya investing heavily in building up state-sponsored infrastructure for fabric mills and apparel production, the continent is on a trajectory to develop the expertise, capacity and holistic value chain for products all its own.
Ultimately, the mission is about more than creating goods for the Western world designed by foreign creatives, Mbonyumutwa said.
“The fashion industry is a $3.5 trillion industry, and the whole of the African continent represents less than 1 percent,” she added. “I’ve been frustrated to see that we are building big manufacturing factories and platforms that are mainly serving Western brands. I want to see if we can find a way of doing both—remaining a solution for the global fashion industry, and helping African brands also grow and scale.”