What many farmers leave rotting on the ground after harvesting bananas has become the raw material for an unusual business venture in Uganda.

Dr Kimani Muturi, a Kenyan lecturer-turned-entrepreneur based in Uganda, is using banana stems to extract fibre and turn it into commercial products, including carpets and biodegradable hair extensions.

His story was featured on Daring Abroad, where he explained how he moved from seeing banana stems as agricultural waste to treating them as an economic resource.

“I actually started the business with only 300,000 Uganda shillings,” Muri told the programme. The amount was equivalent to about KSh10,000 at the time of the interview.

The waste that became a product

After farmers harvest bananas, the stems are often left behind. Muri saw an opportunity in what others regarded as waste.

The extracted fibre itself is sold as a product, with Muri saying the business is already exporting fibre to Karachi, Pakistan, where it is blended with cotton for use in denim production.

But his ambition goes beyond selling raw fibre.

The material can be processed into carpets and other products, while the business is also developing biodegradable hair extensions as an alternative to synthetic products.

The entrepreneur's vision is eventually to move further up the value chain and produce fabric locally. That would require investment in a spinning line capable of converting the fibre into thread.

Taking the technology beyond his own business

Muri says he has also been sharing his knowledge with other communities rather than keeping the technology within his own company.

He has conducted training in Kisii and Nyamira, where people are extracting banana fibre and experimenting with products including handicrafts, sanitary pads and hair extensions. He has also trained people in Maragua who extract and sell the fibre.

He is additionally working with Mitungu Technical and Vocational College in Meru to establish a banana-fibre extraction and value-addition unit.

The facility is still at an early stage, according to Muri.

For him, the bigger opportunity lies in helping communities discover commercial possibilities in materials that are routinely discarded.

A lesson in seeing value where others see waste

Muri's approach is particularly relevant in Uganda, where bananas are an important part of the agricultural economy.

His message to aspiring entrepreneurs is straightforward: look more closely at what surrounds you.

“When you go to a sawmill and find there is a lot of sawdust and they are burning it, ask yourself, what can I do with this?” he said.

The answer, he argues, is to find the right technology to turn waste into something usable — and then build a business around it.

That idea is at the heart of his story: innovation does not always begin with creating something new. Sometimes it begins with looking differently at something everyone else has thrown away.

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