IAKIB

About IAKIB

IAKIB is a dairy cooperative, officially registered in 2011, but started informally as an association of dairy farmers on October 23th 2003. IAKIB (Impuzamashyirahamwe y’Aborozi ba Kijyambere ba Byumba) aims to increase the production of high quality milk, improve breeds of dairy cows, provide outstanding services to members and reduce poverty by improving the livelihoods of the producers engaged in dairy production.

The cooperative is owned by 704 members and the maximum number of shares per member equals to one with main shareholders 704 regarding to the law of RCA (Rwanda cooperative Agency).  All members have fully paid their shares.

Previously, the share value was at 300,000 Rwf (327 Euro) but recently 15th July 2017 the cooperative has decided to reduce the share value from 300,000 Rwf to 50,000 Rwf to attract additional new members.  The ownership is restricted to members, transferrable, and dividends are shared equally between the members.

The main activity of IAKIB is the collection of raw milk, 38,000 Rwf liter of milk per day which is partly (5,000 l) sold  to a private dairy company named “Blessed Dairies Ltd’’ while the rest is sold to Inyange Industries, the leading processor in Rwanda. IAKIB is also involved in animal feed processing and selling veterinary pharmaceutical drugs. Besides dairy activities IAKIB has some minor financial services (including loans that are offered to members). Currently IAKIB is supplying all its collected milk which is between 25,000 - 38,000 liter per day.

Area of Agriterra Support:

Within the trajectory to become a smoking chimney in the future, Agriterra has been supporting IAKIB in following ways:

Finished projects in 2016:

1. Exchange visit in Kenya , to learn from Meru Central Dairy Union on how they organized themselves before starting processing and which are the machinery they bought

2. Exchange visit to UCORIBU union, a rice union that is also a client of Agriterra in Rwanda in order to learn from their experience in Joint venture

3. Strategic planning workshop was intended to help IAKIB decide whether to start processing alone or within a joint venture company.

4. Dairy Learning Lab to assist IAKIB members  in improving milk quality and animal feeding.

Ongoing: legal advice to know better the concept of investing as a joint venture company (through the procedures of registering the joint venture company and negotiations of shares.

Ongoing projects in 2017:

1. legal advice to know better the concept of investing as a joint venture company (through the procedures of registering the joint venture company and negotiations of shares).
2. Developing a business plan to know about investment needed

Finished projects in 2017: 

3. Governance training: to assist in improving the governance skills of the board and management
4. Youth workshop:  to consider involving youth members within the cooperative
5. Mobilization events in 14 collection sites of which IAKIB reached to new 5775 new potential members (out of 7,000 non- members that were supplying milk to the cooperative)who have committed themselves to buy shares at the value of the recently approved amount of 50,000Rwf and become members of IAKIB.  The former 704 members who will get a compensation of 250,000 Rwf have already accepted to re-invest part of compensation which is 150,000 Rwf into the processing plant and only take home 100,000 Rwf

Upcoming:

1. Strategic Coaching on the business plan
2. Internal capitalization which will take place after the business plan will be released, with the aim to commit members in investing into the processing plant to better strengthen the position of IAKIB within the Joint Venture.
3. Financial management training to improve the management system.
4. Linking the Cooperative to Kampani investment company or seizing other financing opportunities
5. Use of KPI’s to measure the progress

Final remarks

During the trajectory, IAKIB faced some challenges in the process of starting processing as the district of Gicumbi where the cooperative is based, recommended IAKIB to involve all the farmers under the same district in the project of working towards processing. Up to now, IAKIB is no longer in control of all the business plan development which is the hands of the district.

The remaining Agriterra support towards achieving this big project will therefore depend on how fast the district will release the business plan to conduct the steps that were remaining.