Taste of progress: High-iron bean nutritional formulation draws international acclaim

When Samuel Uwihanganye – a passionate advocate for children’s nutrition and community empowerment – began experimenting with fortified flour blends in his modest facility in Bweramvura, Rwanda, he likely never imagined that his creations, which he developed with technical support from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT through the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), would someday receive international recognition.

Barely weeks after showcasing his fortified, bean-based products at the Africa Conference on Agricultural Technologies (ACAT) in Kigali, under his company Rainbow Healthy Food Ltd, its flagship product — the Monti 7-in-1 Composite Bean Flour, made with biofortified high-iron beans for enhanced nutrition — was selected as one of the winners of the Fortify Forward Innovation Challenge 2025 in East Africa. The award, under the category ‘Profitable and Sustainable Business Models for Fortification’, will be officially presented at an event in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on July 3rd and 4th, 2025.