Mr. Samuel Evenor is an entrepreneur based at Cygangue with an interest in the arts. Samuel makes artisanal craft like earrings, clocks and jewellery boxes among others, using dry banana fibre as his main raw materials. Through the SWITCH Africa Green programme, Samuel benefited from a hands-on training in the use of dry banana fibres which was delivered by Texfad trainers from Uganda. The grantees between the two programmes met during the SWITCH Africa Green regional meeting in Kampala, Uganda in 2016.
Through a project that targeted the development of capacity amongst Rodriguans by the Commission of Environment in order to adopt green businesses through training to key stakeholders and the development of a green business guidebook, entrepreneurs like Samuel have benefitted immensely. The intervention is aimed at supporting existing and new entrepreneurs to adopt green business strategies through training activities for the beneficiaries in new techniques and overall running of green businesses. This transfer of technologies is important and will help the beneficiaries to more easily embark into new green enterprises. The project also had a research component that includes green policy analysis for the Rodrigues Island.
The programme addressed eco-innovation; aiming to develop products and processes that can contribute to sustainable development and applying the commercial application of knowledge to elicit direct or indirect ecological improvements.
The results of these measures are the reduction of banana waste as it is transformed into decorative craft, and which now translates to annual Mur 2,000 sales for the year 2017, against a total cost of production of Mur 1,200. In 2018 sales leaped to an enviable figure of about Mur 25,000. Samuel now employs two part time staff during to assist him and especially whenever his products are needed in bulk. His business has created innovation in the sector after the training and has built strong network in 2018 especially during the national networking forum with some innovative product such as name tags and visitor book cover.
“I realized that with a banana plant you use everything; there is nothing that is wasted,” Samuel says. “With the fibres, we can make appealing products out of unused material which is readily available in the island.”
Even as Samuel faced challenges in the price and access to raw materials like straw board and the prohibitive cost of professional equipment, he plans to diversify his products by making different crafts from dry banana fibres. He is also looking forward to upgrading his business as orders for his products have increased.
