About Inzira Creative Partners
Inzira is a locally led, creative-sector partner building long-term systems for inclusive economic growth, with women creatives at the centre. Through co-created programs, active market linkage, and strong ecosystem integration, we connect creatives directly to buyers, retail opportunities, and corporate procurement while investing in their capacity to meet and grow with that demand. We deliver measurable outcomes in skills, income, gender inclusion and sector resilience while ensuring communities shape the direction and impact of the work.
Our name, Inzira, means "the path" in Kinyarwanda. It was chosen by the creatives we serve, reflecting our belief that this journey belongs to all of us. We don't build for communities, we build with them, ensuring every program, decision, and opportunity is shaped by lived experience and cultural knowledge.
What Grounds Us
We believe in co-creation. Creative work thrives when the people doing it shape the systems around it. That's why we don't deliver programs to creatives, we design them together, grounded in lived experience and cultural knowledge.
We believe in dignity. Every interaction honors the expertise creatives carry. We listen first, walk alongside, and treat partnership as the foundation of progress, not service delivery.
We believe in the full ecosystem. Individual success depends on strong systems. We invest in skills, finance, market access, physical infrastructure, and digital visibility, by connecting them into pathways that work in real life.
We believe in local leadership. Our teams come from within Rwanda's creative community. This gives us the cultural fluency, trust, and contextual understanding needed to support a sector where tradition and innovation intersect.
We believe creative work is an economic contribution. It's culture, heritage, and livelihood. It deserves recognition as dignified employment and investment as a driver of inclusive growth, starting in Rwanda and extending across Africa.
See who's building with us
Our team
We are creatives, connectors, and builders — a Rwandan team supporting a Rwandan sector.
Turi abahanzi, abahuza, n'abubatsi — ikipe y'Abanyarwanda ishyigikira urwego rw'Abanyarwanda.
Aline Umutoni
Programmes Lead
Designs and runs Inzira's co-created programmes with creatives across Rwanda.
Jean-Paul Habimana
Partnerships & Market Access
Connects makers to the buyers, retailers, and procurement leads who sustain their work.
Divine Ingabire
Community & Directory
Builds the Creative Rwanda directory and supports the maker community day to day.
Board of Directors
Our board brings finance, creative practice, policy, and international experience to keep Inzira accountable, useful, and rooted in the sector it serves.
Claudine Mukamana
Chair
Two decades in development finance across East Africa, with a focus on the creative and cultural sectors.
Brings: Finance & governance
Eric Nkurunziza
Director
A practising designer and studio founder who has mentored a generation of Rwandan makers.
Brings: Creative practice
Sarah Keza
Director
Policy and trade specialist connecting Rwandan creatives to international markets and institutions.
Brings: Policy & international markets
Creative Youth Advisory Board
Our Creative Youth Advisory Board is made up of practising Rwandan creatives — the people this work exists to serve. They shape our programmes, test our assumptions, and hold us to the sector's real needs.
Inama Ngishwanama y'Abahanzi igizwe n'abahanzi b'Abanyarwanda bakora — abo aka kazi kagenewe.
Kevine Uwase
Textile & craft · Musanze
"The sector needs rooms where makers outside Kigali are heard first."
Patrick Bizimana
Music & performance · Kigali
"I want the next cohort to keep ownership of what they build."
Grace Mutoni
Visual art & design · Huye
"Programmes should be tested by the people they're meant to serve."
Meets quarterly. One decision it shaped: the advisory board pushed masterclass delivery out of Kigali, and cohort 2 now runs in Musanze.
Composition aim: majority women, spread across sub-sectors, representation beyond Kigali, a cooperative voice, and a seat for a creative living with a disability.
How we govern
The three bodies at a glance
The team
The people who build and run Inzira's programmes, platform, and partnerships day to day.
Rwandan creatives, connectors & builders
Board of Directors
Governance and accountability — finance, policy, creative practice, and international experience.
Published at quorum
Creative Youth Advisory Board
The sector's voice in the room — practising creatives who shape programmes and test assumptions.
Meets quarterly · majority women
Where would you like to go next?
Join Creative Rwanda
Register your profile on the directory, apply to open calls, and join the peer community.
Join Creative RwandaPartner with us
Source vetted Rwandan makers, support a programme, or build a partnership.
Partner with us