We are pleased to announce our Hero Spotlight of the Month: Diane Mukasahaha, ABH 2025 Top 10 Hero and founder and CEO of DIKAM Ltd, a Rwandan garment and textile manufacturing company transforming lives through inclusive, Made-in-Rwanda production. Through DIKAM, Diane has built a bold, scalable enterprise that weaves together economic empowerment, skills development, and national industrial pride to tackle one of Africa's most persistent challenges: youth unemployment and women's economic exclusion.
DIKAM's mission is to empower women and youth through industrial textile training and job creation, and to date the company has trained over 600 people and created more than 400 jobs, the vast majority of them women. Operating out of Kigali, DIKAM specialises in uniforms for hospitals, hospitality, and security companies, with a production capacity of between 3,000 and 10,000 pieces per day. The company has grown from 30 part-time staff to over 280 permanent employees, supported by international trainers and a mentorship program for eight small firms.
Photo: Production team at Dikam
What makes Diane's story extraordinary is the unconventional path that led her here. Before founding DIKAM, she spent 15 years in public health, working with organisations such as USAID and the Rwanda Biomedical Centre. Witnessing how poverty denied the vulnerable access to dignity, she asked herself a defining question: "What if I could create something that generates income and gives back?" That question became DIKAM. Today, the company partners with government institutions to train and employ unemployed women and men, including a pilot that trained 18 teen mothers, 70 percent of whom were employed afterward.
DIKAM has also ventured into exports, supplying Italian sportswear brand Givova jackets to markets in Germany and the Netherlands, proving that Made-in-Rwanda can compete globally. Earlier this year, Diane reached the Top 10 of the prestigious 2025 Africa's Business Heroes Prize — selected from nearly 32,000 applications across the continent — and competed at the Grand Finale in Kigali, walking away with a USD 100,000 grant to fuel DIKAM's next chapter.
A celebratory moment at the Dikam factory
Looking ahead, DIKAM is working to establish its own production plant, expanding its value chain from raw materials to finished garments and creating even more jobs. Diane's ambition is clear: "When I started, my goal was to create 5,000 jobs, and I keep adding more. I want African women to be counted among the continent's most impactful leaders."
Congratulations to Diane and the entire DIKAM team for their extraordinary achievements and inspiring contributions to women's economic empowerment, youth skills development, industrial innovation, and the Made-in-Rwanda movement.
To learn more visit:
https://www.dikam.rw/
