Matooke cooking bananas are a staple meals in Uganda. George William Byarugaba Bazirake’s corporate has discovered a option to give them an extended shelf lifestyles.Credit score: Jake Lyell/Alamy
George William Byarugaba Bazirake is a Ugandan meals biotechnologist and the founder and managing director of Frevasema, an organization in Mbarara that exports contemporary, vacuum-sealed bananas to the USA and Australia.
He began his profession instructing at Kyebambe Women Secondary Faculty in western Uganda within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. Starting in 1990, he pursued a bachelor’s after which a grasp’s stage in meals era from Kuban State College in Krasnodar, Russia, graduating in 1995. In 2008, he earned a PhD in meals biotechnology from a programme at Stellenbosch College in South Africa that allowed him to proceed to paintings part-time as a lecturer at Kyambogo College (KYU) and to check at Makerere College, each in Kampala.
He served as dean of the college of science at KYU from 2012 to 2016, and retired in 2020 when he reached 60, the required retirement age for public servants in Uganda. Alternatively, retirement has no longer slowed him down. He’s now vice-chair of the board of the Uganda Nationwide Council for Science and Generation.
His corporate anchored a consortium of 5 different companies owned through researchers and teachers that shaped Afri Banana Merchandise in 2012, however sooner or later the companions cut up aside as they various their merchandise. Frevasema now exports a mean of three tonnes of cooking bananas — referred to as matooke, and located simplest in East Africa — each and every month. It additionally manufactures wine from matooke. Bazirake tells Nature about his profession, which has taught him tips on how to straddle the worlds of educational analysis and product commercialization.
What will have to teachers be told prior to they project into industry? And what educational wisdom has been essential for you in industry?
Let me get started with essentially the most tricky lesson: industry is dangerous. Everyone seems to be taking a look to profit. Employees and specialists once in a while wish to benefit from you. Additionally, teachers who wish to get started up companies will have to get started saving cash and discovering traders early, whilst they’re nonetheless incomes a wage. In that approach, you create a cushy touchdown. I’m nonetheless making an investment the source of revenue I earn as a freelance lecturer at KYU. Get started saving for funding in your enterprise early. When you wait till retirement, you’ll crash.
I introduced from academia the theory of the significance of study to my industry. Having a look at industry concepts that may remedy societal issues, the tips should additionally produce new services and products for society.
In our case, the bananas which can be most often eaten contemporary are cumbersome and perishable. A couple of days after slicing, the bunch will ripen and sooner or later smash. However with era, merchandise similar to matooke, the East African Highland banana, and its juices can keep contemporary longer. We use biotechnological answers similar to enzymatic inactivation to forestall spoilage and biotransformation through yeast to assist to show the juices into wine. Ordinarily, bananas smash after 5 to 8 days, however our bananas can ultimate for as much as six months with refrigeration and deep-freezing — that permits us to export to the African diaspora marketplace all over the world.
What dangers are keen on transferring from academia to industry?
You are available no longer working out the industry panorama. But in addition, there are extra uncertainties. For instance, you could spend money on a lodge in a brand new space, after which competition would possibly are available and supply higher products and services. You’ll have to both regulate the lodge or conform to earn much less since the newcomer is offering a greater carrier. Because of this you should keep cutting edge in industry, focusing or diversifying services and products to have a aggressive merit.
What came about to Afri Banana?
Afri Banana was once began through a staff of six teachers. It was once a consortium of study mavens from universities and the non-public sector, from Uganda and Kenya. The objective was once to have an innovation hub the place the group would additionally get pleasure from our experience and information switch. However we lacked focal point and cohesion. When some other folks began appearing higher than the others, they idea they’d be running on my own. The companions had other pursuits on the analysis and commercialization levels.
How tricky is it being an educational, entrepreneur and circle of relatives guy without delay?
Making plans is essential on this. Marry a spouse — no longer merely a partner. My spouse, who may be a professor and head of the literature division at KYU, has been a spouse, businesswoman, spouse and adviser to me. Within the industry, we proportion roles.
Our kids also are companions. They do the laundry at house. Additionally they assist with easy duties, similar to pc paintings — coming into gross sales and source of revenue statements.
The industry is registered as not-for-profit, so we now have a couple of building companions. And we search to interact and empower communities, particularly girls and younger other folks, thru employment. However elevating cash has no longer been simple after the mess of the COVID-19 pandemic, so I’m supplementing with my contract instructing at KYU, the place I supervise grasp’s and PhD scholars of their thesis paintings. I additionally lecture and provides steerage to assistant academics who’re instructing undergraduates.
This interview has been edited for duration and readability.
