Bulls n Bears Entrepreneurship Zone :: Mosquito-repellent soap and healthy smoothies: Two young entrepreneurs show how to build businesses from organic products

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Uganics, Uganda


As a young child in Kankobe orphanage in Uganda, Joan Nalubega regularly
suffered from bouts of malaria. Now, at the age of 21, she uses that
difficult time in her life as her motivation and inspiration for her
business: making organic mosquito-repellent soap.

Uganics was established in April 2016 with the aim of finding an
intervention against malaria. Nalubega has worked with different chemistry
students at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and at Mannheim
University in Germany on the product development.

“It has taken a lot of time to get the final product. We have tried and
failed a lot of times, but in December 2017 we achieved success with the
final product and in April of 2018 it was certified,” she says.

The repellent effects of the soap lasts up to six hours following a bath,
and clothes and linen washed with the soap have the same effect.

Finding the right suppliers has been a struggle.

“At first we bought the ingredients from different Ugandan organic farmers,
but during our tests, we realised that some ingredients were not purely
organic, yet it is one of our values. So, we decided to grow the ingredients
ourselves,” Nalubega says.

The company did not have any land for that purpose. They then incorporated
an element into their social business model where they look for rural
female-led households who would not be able to purchase their product, but
who have dormant land available. These mothers are then given seeds to plant
the herbs required for the soap production.

“Now, every end of the month, we meet up with them, extract the oils
together and provide them with the final product at an affordable price,
whilst they also earn a living,” says Nalubega. Currently there are 20 of
these rural families contributing as suppliers.

Uganics is a for-profit business, but Nalubega is adamant that there will
always be a social impact focus. The company has a two-tier pricing model
where the same product is sold at more than 100% profit to the socially and
ecologically conscious guests of upmarket lodges and hotels, and then at an
affordable, subsidised price, to families in rural communities.

Along with the 20 rural suppliers, Uganics has two employees (illiterate
youth) who have been trained in production, and five co-founders who assist
Nalubega with the operations. The production facility is currently on land
owned by the Social Innovation Academy of Uganda in the Mpigi district.

Along with the consumer business of selling the soap, Uganics also runs
awareness campaigns in the country on how to prevent malaria, not only when
sleeping with mosquito nets, but throughout the day.

Uganics has two distributors in Kampala with signed agreements, five lodges
that already buy the products every month and three other hotels that are
interested. To supply the demand, the company will have to expand its
equipment to increase production. This is the next step Nalubega and her
team are looking at.

Her goals for the future are to create 300 jobs for women in rural
communities through herb growing and oil extraction, and to increase the
number of youths employed in mosquito repellent production to 50. Uganics
also plans to add more products to its line, such as organic lotions and
sprays.


BOISSA, Madagascar


In the sprawling capital city of Madagascar, Antananarivo, in a green area
in the suburb of Antanetibe Ilafy, is the production facility for BOISSA.
This young company was set up earlier this year by the 21-year old Nomena
Andrianantoandro, who fiercely believes that her business idea and product
comes at exactly the right time to benefit from an increasing focus on
healthy living in her native country.

“I am passionate because I have started to discover the power of nature.
Because we are what we eat, I realised that natural fruits and veggies can
give us a productive body and a peaceful mind,” says the business management
student. BOISSA drinks are 100% natural, sugar- and preservative-free fruit
and vegetable smoothies – or “cocktails” as Andrianantoandro prefers to call
them.

All of the startup capital that was required to set up the small production
facility and get the business going, came from Andrianantoandro’s own
savings. Currently the beverages (a combination of fruits and vegetables
enriched with Malagasy rice milk) are hand pressed, but she hopes to invest
in a semi-automated production system by December of this year to boost
production capacity.

The idea for the business came from her own experience – she loves fresh,
natural fruit and vegetable smoothies, but used to have to travel into the
city centre to a juice bar to get her daily fix. So, she envisioned BOISSA –
where these healthy drinks could be distributed widely to all the
health-conscious customers out there.

“We are currently working with local smallholder farmers to provide us with
the ingredients that we need. We value local production, so it is all
manufactured here in ‘Tananarive,” she says.

BOISSA is barely six months old, but already it employs six young women.
The fledgling company is distributing its products through two channels:
B2B, where they provide restaurants and sports academies with the drinks and
B2C, where the product is distributed to private clients and companies.

Andrianantoandro admits that it was not easy to find the first stockists
for BOISSA. “It was a bit difficult because we had to demonstrate our
capacity for production, the potential and the benefits from the product as
well. Now, I go out and capitalise on the networks and relationships that I
already have in the market,” she says.

It’s early days, but it’s going well. Currently the company is making 15%
profit from sales and Andrianantoandro hopes to add a laboratory in the long
run in order to get on a par with international standards and achieve export
accreditation.--Howwemadeitinafrica



 

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