Walk around Kigali, Rwanda, and you’ll feel Jibu’s presence immediately. Towers of 20-liter jugs crowd every supermarket, bright blue franchise shops dot the city’s hillsides, and delivery trucks stacked high with bottles weave through streets and alleyways. In many ways, Jibu blends seamlessly into Kigali’s urban sprawl and becomes just as much a part of the landscape as the clean boulevards and buzzing mototaxis.
For those unfamiliar with the brand, Jibu is an East African-based social enterprise addressing water insecurity through a decentralized franchise model. The company primarily sells 20-liter bottles, or “jugs” of purified drinking water to resellers, households, and businesses. They also offer smaller-sized bottles and are now diversifying into natural gas. The brand is well established, profitable, and rapidly expanding in a competitive market.
While the big picture success is impressive, Jibu has always been, and continues to be, a business driven by its franchise owners. These entrepreneurs drive revenue, control operations, and grow their businesses through developing relationships with customers. Without their commitment to their franchise’s success, there would be no Jibu.
For our Fellowship, we conducted a two-month-long research project to evaluate the company’s Point of Sale (POS) system, which took us to 34 Jibu franchise locations across Rwanda and Kenya to interview 40 owners and employees about their daily operations and the technology they use to manage them. During our Jibu franchise visits, we were fortunate enough to meet the entrepreneurs who have dedicated their professional lives to owning Jibu franchises, and their stories left a profound impression on us.
1. Claude: Learning, Failing, and Scaling – One Franchise at a Time
While opening his first Jibu franchise in 2017, Claude quickly realized how challenging it would be to get his business off the ground and be a franchise owner. “It was tough with my first franchise back then,” he recalls. “Nobody knew us. We had to walk door to door in order to get customers.” After a challenging first year with Jibu, Claude was able to grow substantially during his second. Soon after, he opened another Jibu location. According to Claude, the second store was much easier to manage than the first because he didn’t repeat his previous mistakes. He would soon open a third franchise.
When we asked him if he wanted to open a fourth, he shrugged. Claude would like to, but he’s got his hands full enough already. Claude splits his time between visiting his businesses in person and managing operations from his office. Claude’s journey demonstrates how persistence, learning through trial and error, and disciplined growth can contribute to building sustainable success.
2. Mediatrice: Innovation Born from Everyday Frustration
As we continued our research and interviews with Jibu franchisees across Rwanda and Kenya, we met Mediatrice Muvuna, an extremely passionate and determined businesswoman who became a Jibu franchise owner in 2015. She has spent 10 years building and expanding her business, now owning six Jibu franchise locations. With a decade of experience as a business owner, Media provided us with invaluable insight into Jibu’s business model, especially regarding the POS system.
It was clear to us throughout our interviews that the POS system was not meeting the needs of the franchisees. After speaking with Media, it became clearer why the POS system was difficult to navigate and too slow for high-volume transactions. It’s complex, inefficient, and lacks key features like accurate inventory tracking. She recognized these challenges early on and addressed them right away by developing her own Excel tracking system tailored to her franchise’s specific needs. The system was both faster and easier to use, but it also tracked sales, inventory, and production efficiently. Her initiative to create a system that works for her franchises shows her adaptability and strategic business decisions. But it also reinforces the importance of improving the POS system to better support the entire Jibu network.
What We Learned From Meeting Jibu’s Entrepreneurs
The dedication and pride that Jibu owners like Claude and Mediatrice exhibited in running their franchises was deeply moving, reflecting not only their commitment to their businesses but also their role as successful innovators and proven leaders within their communities. We were grateful to meet the men and women who are the faces of Jibu, and to visit their shops, shake their hands, and see their personalities shine through during every interview. As Jibu continues to grow and expand within existing countries and into new markets, it is the hard work of these entrepreneurs that has made this expansion possible and has opened the door for the next generation of entrepreneurs and Jibu partners across Africa. Their stories deserve to be seen just as clearly as those rows of blue jigs lining the streets of Kigali.
______
Photos:
Miller Center Lewis Family Fellows Erik Pompermayer & Cecelia Fox-Middleton w/ Jibu clients
Visiting a Jibu in East Africa
