Turning bananas into wine

In 2007, soft spoken Francisca Kamanzi was preparing to go for her degree course at Uganda Christian University. Being a mature entry student, how was she going to manage paying her tuition at university and at the same time sustain her family financially? “I had to think of an alternative of how I could make ends meet since my income could not cater for both my tuition and home,” she explains. The answer came through her husband David Gumizamu Bariira, a retired army officer.

After reading a book about banana wine making, Bariira advised his wife to take up the new idea and see what would come of it. The idea came to life when Uganda Cooperative Alliance, through a State House initiative, came calling on women groups and individuals to attend a banana wine making training at Bushenyi District headquarters. Trainees were to get skills on how to add value to bananas other than having them as a staple food.

Under her company, KIAGA Uganda Ltd, Kamanzi and her colleagues responded to the call and attended the training.

The start

“After the training, I had to devise means on how I could start my own wine-making business,” Kamanzi reveals.

She rallied other women who sold yellow bananas to her at a cheap price. With this, she set out on her first banana wine-making venture, which took one and a half years. That year, Galla wine was born. She supplied her first product to relatives and friends, who liked it. “These encouraged me to continue with the venture on a bigger scale.

“I did not have enough money to start producing wine on a bigger scale so I acquired a loan of Shs5 million from Microfinance Support Center to boost my savings. It was such a big risk but the desire to achieve my goal encouraged me,” Kamanzi says.

Kamanzi and her husband now employ eight people on a permanent basis. With these, they can now produce wine on a larger scale, which they sell within and outside the country.
“Uganda National Bureau of Standards certified our products, enabling us to sell even outside the country,” Kamanzi says.

To keep abreast with her business, Kamanzi keeps books of accounts, where she keeps every financial record about the business. This enables her to determine its future.

Achievements
Kamanzi has been able to construct two buildings that house her business, bought some equipment for making wine and pay school fees for her children at all levels.
The couple has also constructed a residential house and bought a car with profits from the business.

Challenges
The biggest challenge Kamanzi has faced in her business is that local people have not yet appreciated the locally manufactured wine. Most of them prefer imported brands. Others prefer the local and cheap gins (waragi). This limits her sales.

Kamanzi owns a small car, which cannot transport all the required products to the market. She needs a truck to help in transportation and distribution of the products.

Bushenyi District has for the past three years experienced banana bacterial wilt disease, which affects banana plants and this has reduced the raw materials for Kamanzi’s business.

Future Plans
Kamanzi hopes to expand her business and start a training centre where she can train other people in the community how to make wine from bananas.
Kamanzi advises upcoming entrepreneurs to always exercise patience in every step of their endeavours. She also advises them to focuss on achieving the goals they set out. “Use your brain as the first capital and others will follow,” she says.

How to make wine

• Ripen the bananas for two to three weeks, depending on the weather.
• Heat 10kg of peeled ripe bananas in 20 litres of water. As you heat, stir the bananas until they all break into fine mash.
• Let the mixture cool and filter out the juice and keep it for three days.
• Add sugar and other preservatives and keep it for three days.
• Put it in closed tanks for about eight months to allow fermentation.
• Siphon it out of the tanks and put it in bottles.

The numbers
Shs7,500
The price at which Kamanzi sells a 350ml bottle of banana wine.

Shs200,000
The price at which Kamanzi sells a 20-litre jerrycan of banana wine.

Shs15,000
The price at which Kamanzi sells a 750ml bottle of banana wine..

Shs5 million
Amount Kamanzi earns as profit from her banana wine business per month.