This is the first installment in what hopefully will be a long enduring story.
In my first visit to Tanzania a year ago, I thought about possible businesses that could be started. One of my first ideas was a bicycle factory. Bicycles are very common here – but not nearly common enough. It is the transportation mode that most people aspire to have. Bicycles are not just for personal transport. They are trucks, taxis, and often key to a person’s livelihood. You can see them on many highways where even 10 miles from the nearest town there are many people riding – but also many people walking.
In my first visit to Tanzania a year ago, I thought about possible businesses that could be started. One of my first ideas was a bicycle factory. Bicycles are very common here – but not nearly common enough. It is the transportation mode that most people aspire to have. Bicycles are not just for personal transport. They are trucks, taxis, and often key to a person’s livelihood. You can see them on many highways where even 10 miles from the nearest town there are many people riding – but also many people walking.
I lodged this in the back of my mind for many months.
Now fast forward with me to early in 2009. I had been introduced by Scott Hillstrom to a Jake Chaya. Scott had not given either of us a reason to meet but Jake said that he had known Scott for 20 years. Jake conveyed that Scott had perhaps even a spiritual gift for making introductions that were important. I believe this can be true because I have seen how Cheetah’s very existence has depended time and again on being introduced to the right person at the right time.
As Jake and I share our respective stories, I found that Jake had many projects going both in the USA and in the developing world. One of these was particularly interesting to me. Jake is involved in an organization that is working in Rwanda (adjacent to Tanzania on the west). This group (http://www.projectrwanda.org/) is working on delivering three wheel cargo bikes to poor farmers. They have created a solution that involves setting up bike shops with trained technicians, tools, inventory and parts – almost a franchise model. Then they have partnered with a microfinance organization that finances the bikes. (If you don’t know about microfinance, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance.) They are now selling many bikes; if I have my numbers straight, more than one per working day p
er store.
But according to Jake, Project Rwanda has a problem. The bikes are imported from China and are of very poor quality. China produces varying degrees of quality: one for the west, which is the highest standard, another for their own consumption and a third for the third world, which is very poor. As has been described to me, they look beautiful and shiny but the paint rubs right off and the frames fall apart. I have verified this with people in Tanzania.
Jake assures me that Project Rwanda is looking for a new source and they would prefer to by African, especially locally. Besides the poor quality, the cost of shipping the bikes from China is almost equal to the cost of the bike. This shipping problem is a built in protection for locally produced goods. Many products that are bulky and lack special technology or sources enjoy this benefit. Think of toilets, furniture, bread, etc. as examples.
But it got better. Project Rwanda has already had a cargo bike designed by an American bike designer and a prototype built.
‘Bike factory’ was moved from deep in the mental recesses to one of the most interesting ideas to consider.
(Story continues here: http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-2.html)
Now fast forward with me to early in 2009. I had been introduced by Scott Hillstrom to a Jake Chaya. Scott had not given either of us a reason to meet but Jake said that he had known Scott for 20 years. Jake conveyed that Scott had perhaps even a spiritual gift for making introductions that were important. I believe this can be true because I have seen how Cheetah’s very existence has depended time and again on being introduced to the right person at the right time.
As Jake and I share our respective stories, I found that Jake had many projects going both in the USA and in the developing world. One of these was particularly interesting to me. Jake is involved in an organization that is working in Rwanda (adjacent to Tanzania on the west). This group (http://www.projectrwanda.org/) is working on delivering three wheel cargo bikes to poor farmers. They have created a solution that involves setting up bike shops with trained technicians, tools, inventory and parts – almost a franchise model. Then they have partnered with a microfinance organization that finances the bikes. (If you don’t know about microfinance, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance.) They are now selling many bikes; if I have my numbers straight, more than one per working day p
er store.But according to Jake, Project Rwanda has a problem. The bikes are imported from China and are of very poor quality. China produces varying degrees of quality: one for the west, which is the highest standard, another for their own consumption and a third for the third world, which is very poor. As has been described to me, they look beautiful and shiny but the paint rubs right off and the frames fall apart. I have verified this with people in Tanzania.
Jake assures me that Project Rwanda is looking for a new source and they would prefer to by African, especially locally. Besides the poor quality, the cost of shipping the bikes from China is almost equal to the cost of the bike. This shipping problem is a built in protection for locally produced goods. Many products that are bulky and lack special technology or sources enjoy this benefit. Think of toilets, furniture, bread, etc. as examples.
But it got better. Project Rwanda has already had a cargo bike designed by an American bike designer and a prototype built.
‘Bike factory’ was moved from deep in the mental recesses to one of the most interesting ideas to consider.
(Story continues here: http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-2.html)
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