What began with discarded banana stems has become one of Botswana’s most intriguing beauty innovations. From Ghanzi to Japan, Uganda to Copenhagen, Matlhogonolo Seadimo is turning agricultural waste into braiding fibre and collecting recognition along the way.
GOSEGO MOTSUMI
The beauty industry has never been afraid of transformation. But turning banana waste into hair extensions? That is a different kind of makeover.
For more than 15 years, Matlhogonolo Seadimo has worked with hair-braiding materials, beginning in Ghanzi with synthetic fibre. Her curiosity eventually took her further afield, including China and Japan, where she studied manufacturing processes and looked at how the industry could evolve.
Then came the banana stem.
Seadimo travelled to Uganda and Zimbabwe to investigate the availability and potential of banana stems as a raw material. That research eventually became Mattie’s Braids, a biodegradable, chemical-free braiding material made from discarded banana stems.
FROM MAUN TO THE WORLD
The idea has since moved well beyond the workshop.
In 2024, Seadimo won first place in the Standard Chartered Women in Tech Accelerator and the Most Sustainable Growth Award. A year later, she represented Botswana at the Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Botswana became the first African country to win the competition.
There were more milestones: Top 10 in the ICDSI Venture Z competition in Saudi Arabia, Top 8 in the Harvard Business School Africa Business Club New Venture Competition, Top 10 in the UK Nature Accelerator and second place in the GEC+ Africa regional competition.
Most recently, Mattie’s Braids claimed second place and the People’s Choice Award at the Afri GreenPitch Challenge.
THE AWARDS ARE JUST THE BEGINNING
For Seadimo, recognition is useful but it is not the finish line.
“The awards are not the destination,” she told Time Out.
Her sights are firmly set on scaling production, strengthening the supply chain and taking Mattie’s Braids into more Southern African markets, with ambitions stretching across Africa and eventually internationally.
She is also seeking strategic investment and partnerships to increase manufacturing capacity and create jobs.
The bigger idea is simple: Botswana does not have to import every great idea.
Seadimo wants to prove that something as ordinary as a discarded banana stem can become a commercially successful product and that an innovation born in Botswana can compete on the world stage.