When Juliet Kakwerre N. Tumusiime walks into a room, she carries with her the quiet confidence of a lady who has built something truly remarkable. As Founder and CEO of Cheveux Organique, the company manufacturing biodegradable hair extensions made from banana fibre, she has pioneered an innovation that is changing how women think about beauty, agriculture, and sustainability.
Her work has earned her one of the continent’s most prestigious honours, the WAYA 2025 Women Empowerment Champion Award, a recognition that speaks to the strength of her innovation, and the women empowerment movement she has created across Uganda. Kakwerre’s journey shows what becomes possible when agriculture, ingenuity and women’s leadership are guided by purpose.
The WAYA Awards, an initiative of AGRA, were established to recognise and elevate women who are driving transformation across Africa’s agri-food systems.
Through the awards, AGRA recognises innovators whose work expands economic opportunities, strengthens food systems and uplifts communities, particularly women and youth who remain at the heart of the continent’s agricultural workforce.
‘This recognition gives me new momentum,’ she explains.
‘It tells me that people see value in what we are doing and that I must now expand this impact to reach even more women.’
Honouring leaders like Kakwerre demonstrates AGRA’s commitment to inclusive agricultural growth and ensures that women not only participate in value chains but also shape and lead them. The recognition also comes with technical support, visibility and catalytic funding, enabling winners to scale ideas that have the potential to shift livelihoods across the continent.
‘For me, this award is a reminder that the work is only beginning,’ Kakwerre says.
‘It pushes me to do even more for the women and communities who believe in this idea.’
A Spark Born in the Banana Fields
The idea for banana-fibre hair did not come from a laboratory. It came from Kakwerre’s years working with USAID, supporting agricultural research to improve banana varieties and strengthen farmers’ resilience to disease and climate shocks.
‘I was working with USAID, managing a project on improved banana varieties, and I kept thinking about how much value we were losing in the crop,’ she says. ‘That exposure opened my eyes to possibilities beyond the fruit itself.’
It is this instinct, curiosity and unrelenting resolve, that has defined her journey. As she travelled across the country, she kept seeing the same painful reality, where farmers harvested more bananas, but much of the harvest went to waste. However, amid all the waste, she saw an opportunity. There were plenty of banana stems lying discarded on farms, and no one seemed to pay attention.
She reflected back to her childhood, when she used dried banana fibres to make dolls and toys, a memory that now returned with new meaning.
‘There must be something here,’ she recalls. But when she presented the idea to scientists, they brushed it aside, which only sharpened her resolve.
‘I am not a scientist,’ she says. ‘I’m simply an inquisitive human being who sees opportunity where others see waste.’
That curiosity ignited a spark that lit a decade-long journey. Between 2012 and 2018, Kakwerre worked with scientists and friends to test, extract, comb, and twist banana fibres, often failing, but always moving forward.
The breakthrough
The breakthrough came when, for the first time, she could run a comb through the fibre, which was proof that it could behave like human hair. From that moment, she knew she had unlocked something bigger than a beauty product.
‘The moment the comb passed through, I realised we had a usable product,’ Kakwerre recalls.
‘From there, it became clear that the next step was to refine it, scale it, and show the world what banana fibre could do.’
Today, Cheveux Organique produces premium banana-fibre hair extensions that are 100 percent plant-based, fully biodegradable and free from the harsh chemicals found in synthetic alternatives. The fibre does not cause itching, allergies or bad smells, and it is gentle enough for sensitive scalps and long-term use. The product is also ethically sourced, a sharp contrast to much of the global human-hair trade, whose origins are often opaque.
Kakwerre’s innovation responds to a problem many women quietly endure, which is synthetic hair made from plastic and toxic chemicals causes itching, allergies and even long-term scalp damage. Human hair, on the other hand, often comes from ethically troubling sources. Therefore, Cheveux Organique offers an alternative that is not only safer, but deeply African. And the world is taking notice.
Her extensions are already being sold in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Australia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Czech Republic, and Belize, with demand far outstripping supply.
‘People around the world are looking for healthier, plant-based options,’ Kakwerre explains. ‘I get calls from the US, Europe, Africa, everywhere. The demand is high, but production is still low, so I have to tell some clients to give me time.’
She sells a 150-gram box of banana-fibre hair at USD 50 (Shs178,000), with most styles requiring three to four boxes, placing a full installation at USD150 to USD200.
Kakwerre subsidises the local market, offering the same box at Shs50,000, although adoption remains gradual as consumers are still accustomed to cheaper synthetic options.
She positions her product firmly in the premium hair category, not competing with low-cost synthetic extensions but aligning with high-value human hair due to its health, ethical and environmental advantages. Kakwerre notes that production costs remain high, but mechanisation will eventually bring prices down.For Kakwerre , the WAYA Award’s USD 25,000 prize money will help her make strategic investments in her business.
‘I want to buy more machines. Demand is high, but production is low. If someone wants a tonne of hair, I cannot give it to them yet.’
Her immediate plan is to triple production while laying the groundwork for a fully mechanised plant that can meet global demand and position Uganda as the centre of Africa’s sustainable hair industry.
Over 2,000 Women Empowered
The real impact of Cheveux Organique is found far from the factory floor. Across the country, particularly in Mukono, Mbarara and Kyenjojo, groups of women come together at the extraction hubs where the machines are stationed. They cut the stems, extract the fibre, dry it, comb it, sort it and turn it into usable material that helps them meet everyday household needs.
This is where Kakwerre’s model truly comes alive, as women gain skills, earn from the fibre and unlock new income opportunities in places that once offered very few.
‘When you see a woman buy a solar lamp or pay school fees from this work, you realise this is bigger than hair,’ Kakwerre says. ‘It’s about restoring possibilities.’
Kakwerre’s enterprise intentionally uplifts women at every stage of the value chain. In the farming communities, women’s groups organise themselves to collect banana stems, notify the company when volumes are ready and earn directly from each batch they supply.
To reduce transport costs and bring value closer to the villages, Kakwerre redesigned her extraction machines so they can be taken to the field, allowing mobile processing.
Women trained to operate these machines earn even more by extracting fibre rather than selling raw stems, which increases their income per unit. The shorter fibres that cannot be used for hair are not discarded; instead, they are transformed into mats, baskets, décor pieces and fabric, creating additional income opportunities and ensuring that nothing goes to waste.
‘For me, it’s not just about the product,’ Kakwerre says. ‘It’s about helping women gain skills, earn more and see real changes in their households. That is where the transformation begins.’Youth and Vulnerable Groups
Kakwerre runs skills programs that train girls and boys in hairdressing, baking, and small business development. Some start their own businesses; others join her production lines.
To date, over 2,000 women have been directly supported, and Kakwerre believes the number is higher, given earlier years reached nearly 5,000 trainees.
The outcomes are life-changing. A woman buys her first solar lamp; another invests in a goat to strengthen household resilience; a mother pays school fees using income from fibre; and families install a television or purchase school uniforms for the first time. These shifts, though simple, speak directly to AGRA’s goals of empowering women, raising household incomes, strengthening agricultural value chains for economic transformation.
‘When you understand what poverty truly looks like,’ Kakwerre says, ‘you become intentional about supporting these communities.’ Import Substitution
According toKakwerre, globally, 80% of those who manufacture and distribute synthetic hair are men, even though women are the primary consumers. Kakwerre is focused on shifting that power imbalance.’Women have always been the consumers, but we’ve rarely been the producers,’ Kakwerre notes. ‘This product is showing that we can drive innovation, own the value chain and set a new direction for the industry.’
A Sustainable, African Value Chain
With bananas grown across Africa, the potential for replication is enormous. Kakwerre already receives calls from South Africa, West Africa, and the diaspora, proving this model is continental.
Winning the WAYA Award has propelled Kakwerre into global conversations. Just weeks after the ceremony in Dakar, Senegal, she received a call from the Ghana Investment Authority: ‘Where have you been?’ they asked.
To her, the award is proof that the continent is ready to embrace indigenous innovation.
‘This recognition means I must work three times harder. The next story about me should not speak of 2,000 women but of one million.’
She sees the award as an invitation for Africa to transform its agricultural wealth into high-value products driven by women and youth.
‘The goal is to build something that reaches far beyond me and creates opportunities for millions of women,’ Kakwerre says.
Her dream is to create a new African industry, rooted in agriculture, driven by women, powered by innovation, and anchored in sustainability.