Matthew Karugarama

Matthew Karugarama came to the U.S. from Rwanda upon receiving a scholarship to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, through an International Student scholarship offered by the university.  He attended ASLF in 2011 and graduated from UALR in May 2012. Upon graduation, he moved back to Rwanda and is now contributing to the growth and development of his home country through agri-business.

Matthew currently serves as General Manager of Zamura Feeds in Musanze, Rwanda. In 2012, Tyson Foods CEO, Donnie Smith, and his wife made the commitment to build a commercial livestock feed mill in Rwanda through their foundation African Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP). Because of the lack of a proper mill to supply Rwandan farmers with quality livestock feed, the Government of Rwanda labeled this a high priority investment and worked with ASAP to quickly facilitate the beginning stages of the project.

The new company, Zamura Feeds, was launched in 2013 with the assistance of Bridge2Rwanda. One of the top priorities for the business was to hire a highly skilled Rwandan to serve as the operations manager. Matthew was hired and put into an intensive management and technical training at Tyson Foods in Arkansas. After completing his training, Matthew returned to Rwanda to run the country’s first feed mill. His role is to implement Zamura’s vision of providing farmers with high quality, affordable livestock feed in order to increase their egg, meat and milk yields. As General Manager, Matthew approaches the investment as an opportunity to build capacity in the protein value chain, support “farmer-preneurs” and create value by raising meat, egg and dairy productivity.

“I became passionate about agri-business because of the sector’s capacity to provide sustainable solutions to poverty while improving Rwanda’s food security situation,” says Matthew. “I also hope to continue serving my community by attracting meaningful investments and by being a good steward of God’s gifts and opportunities.”