Marthe Niyonshuti

Strategic specialist leading the transition of innovative projects from pilot phases to scalable, sustainable models. Working across cross-functional teams and external partners, I focus on optimizing framework design, risk mitigation, and operational strategy to ensure innovations deliver measurable, long-term impact at scale.

My career has always been driven by a single question: How do we take great ideas and make them work at scale? Coming from a background rooted in small and medium enterprise (SME) development, I learned early on that innovation without execution remains just a concept. My formal training in Cooperative and Small Business Management at Kibogora Polytechnic gave me the structural tools to analyze complex organizational systems, while my hands-on leadership as Chairperson of Amahoro Farming Business Ltd in the agribusiness sector taught me how market-driven change actually happens on the ground. Early in my career, I often saw promising pilot projects stall after their initial phase—not for lack of merit, but due to a lack of scalable pathways, stakeholder alignment, or adaptable strategy. Navigating the real-world operational challenges of agribusiness reinforced that true growth requires bridging the gap between local enterprise dynamics and broader strategic frameworks. This realization shifted my focus from simply launching initiatives to engineering their long-term growth. Joining the African Food Fellowship (AFF) as a Business oriented person is the natural evolution of that journey. Here, I combine strategic design with operational rigor to transform regional food systems, ensuring high-impact agricultural innovations reach the communities and markets that need them most.