Maryse Mbonyumutwa

Maryse Mbonyumutwa is a Rwandan woman entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the global fashion and garments industry in Europe but also in China and South East Asia and more recently since 2017, in Africa.

Maryse is the founder of Pink Mango, an export-focused garment trading and manufacturing group. She is also the co-founder of the C&D Pink Mango Rwanda joint venture, a group of export-oriented garment factories employing jointly 5,000 workers in Rwanda to date, 70% of whom are women.

Maryse’s dedication to create meaningful development in Africa, hence her decision to set up Pink Ubuntu, a CSR program which aims to improve the living conditions of workers, particularly women in the textile and garment industries across the African continent.

She is also founder and CEO of Asantii, a contemporary pan African clothing brand celebrating the continent’s heritage and craftsmanship through sustainable and fair fashion. Asantii was launched in August 2022 and is currently available online and in selected concept stores in Kigali, Accra, Abidjan, London, New York and Brussels.

She strongly believes in building and developing sustainable African fashion brands that can power responsible industrialization across the continent.

 Honors and awards

• She has been included in the Vogue Business 100 innovators, Class of 2023 in the “Next Gen entrepreneurs and agitators” who are the forefront of Industry overhaul in September 2023.
• She has been awarded the prize of “Entrepreneur of the year” for Asantii at Forum des Metiers du Luxe in December 2023.
• She has been awarded the “Female Leadership of the Year 2023” by Forbes Afrique in December 2023.
• She has been awarded the GUBA (Grow Unite and Build Africa) for Manufacturing and Sustainability in October 2022.
• She has been awarded the SME Champion of the year by the Africa SME Champions Forum in October 2022.
• Pink Mango C&D has been awarded the “Manufacturer of the year” by the Rwanda Private Sector Federation in October 2022.

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