A team of entrepreneurs in Ghana are turning discarded banana and plantain stems into a more sustainable sanitary pad to fight period poverty.
According to the World Bank, half a billion women and girl worldwide suffer from period poverty (the lack of access to menstrual products and adequate facilities for their menstrual hygiene) and a UNESCO report estimates 10 percent of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa are missing up to as much as a fifth of their school year due to period poverty.
Umar Farouk Mubaraka, Chief Finance Officer and Co-founder of Kodu Technology, explains that the company embarked on research to discover ways of utilizing the wasted stems of banana and plantain from Ghana’s agricultural sector.
“Our initial plan was to make paper from it and we discovered that the banana and plantain fibers have a very high absorption ability, which pushed us into doing this business,” she says, adding that the greatest potential was found in producing sanitary pads.
“By utilizing banana fibers, a byproduct of the agriculture industry, we develop a circular economy, minimizing waste and benefiting local farmers,” Umar Farouk says, adding that the project is positioned as a catalyst for positive environmental and socio-economic change, in addition to helping provide a solution to period poverty.
“Improving the banana fiber extraction procedure has been one of our sanitary pad project’s biggest obstacles,” she says, “Banana fiber extraction and refinement for our pads is a complex process involving both chemical and mechanical procedures.”
Umar Farouk explains that re-using agricultural residues is a science-backed strategy that supports environmental sustainability and agro-ecological principles, but it has been a difficult task to ensure the strength, absorbency, and hygienic criteria of the fiber, while remaining cost-effective.
“It is imperative to tackle these technical obstacles in order to manufacture environmentally conscious menstruation products that satisfy industry norms and consumer demands,” she says.
In 2023, Kodu Technologies were awarded over $8000 as the winners of the Europen-Union-backed Circular Economy Competition.
Ghana
Umar Farouk grew up in Wa in the Upper West Region of Ghana and is a licensed nutritionist and served as the Secretary for her university’s student representative council.
“That experience has equipped me with communication skills and also helped me to work with rural folks in Ghana,” she says.
Umar Farouk explains that researching answers to global difficulties requires the perspectives and ideas that scientists from the Global South contribute.
“Their distinct experiences, originating from various cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic backgrounds, provide a more comprehensive comprehension of intricate matters,” she says, adding that it is essential to take into account a wider range of perspectives.
“Working together, scientists from different backgrounds may solve global problems more effectively and inclusively, which encourages creativity and perseverance in the face of difficulties,” Umar Farouk says, adding that researchers from the Global South might have a deeper understanding of the subtleties and pressing needs of their communities, ensuring that solutions are durable and appropriate in their setting.
Circular Economy in Africa
Another African female entrepreneur working on circular economy solution is Dorcas Lukwesa in Zambia: she’s building a social enterprise there around movable smart gardens made of bamboo for farmers with limited space, limited soil and less water.
Lukwesa, founder of Mobile Aquaponics and a CAMFED Association member studying at EARTH University, a sustainable agriculture-focused university in Costa Rica, says her main project is in mobile aquaponics.
“These gardens use a natural recirculating system known as aquaponics,” she says, adding that aquaponics is the cultivation of fish and vegetables in a constructed recirculating ecosystem, which utilizes naturally occurring bacteria cycles to convert fish waste to plant nutrients.
Lukwesa’s Mobile Aquaponics is a social venture dedicated to providing a resilient response to climate change, promoting food security under climate crisis to reduce poverty in Zambia.
“Through our demonstration urban farm, we hope to offer agribusiness training to over 2,000 farmers in the next five years,” she says, adding that she hopes to create 20 new employment opportunities for women and youth to enable families to generate extra income and encourage a collaborative community in the project.
