The Face of Moringa in Uganda – Levi Wakisi

Celebrate Moringa – Day 16

Let us celebrate moringa in Uganda. Did you know that moringa was first introduced by the government in Uganda in the late 1990s and early 2000s?

Yes! Back then many farmers got excited about this new and promising cash crop. However, Moringa didn’t bring them the return they were expecting, so most of the farmers rejected moringa, believing it was useless.

However, we thank God that some farmers and entrepreneurs caught the vision. Today we meet one of them, Levi Wakisi, the founder of the Face of Moringa Uganda.

Watch the video to hear his story. The transcript of the video is below.

“Imagine if everyone were using moringa!”

Greetings to everyone!

Allow me to celebrate Moringa in December with Africa Moringa Hub. I am Levi Wakisi, CEO of Kisinah Agro-tech Company, also the acting president and founder of Face of Moringa Uganda.

I am from Uganda, in the district known as Jinja, and today I am going to talk to you about the Face of Moringa Uganda.

How did you discover Moringa and the results?

In the late 1990s and early 2000’s our government promoted Moringa to eradicate poverty. That marked my first time to hear about it.

In 2012 I was sent into the fields of Uganda to look for moringa seeds by my mum, as the Chinese market was after it. From then up until now, I have been dealing with it, and the results have been wonderful. It is a fast-growing tree, easy to cultivate, and good for intercrop.

What have you done with moringa?

For the past few years, I have promoted the moringa growth in Uganda and established a processing plant. And now farmers are able to make value-added products from Moringa. Today much more moringa products are on the Ugandan market, while farmers are hoping to produce and market more for the market that is available.

Where is your moringa today?

Value addition is where we have reached today. As more products are coming out of the Ugandan market, and East Africa, and Africa at large, we hope to make it possible for everyone to consume it and for everyone to use it. Then everyone can include it in their day-to-day meals so that everyone can get the benefits of it.

As of to date, the majority know about it, but others don’t know how to use it. We also discovered that the majority can taste the powder, but will not use it regularly. That is what we are trying to do by creating value-added products.

Where is your moringa going?

We are blessed with the weather conditions and fertile soil we have here in Uganda. There is a better future for moringa if it were utilised. Today we are starting with value-addition, but we would like to acquire each certificate as far as standards are concerned.

That’s reaching out to everyone in the world and in the country at large. Imagine if all of us were using moringa! That would be widening up the market.

But remember, there is much, much more we can do, so that we can meet the value addition and the customer target.

At this juncture, allow me to wish everyone a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year in 2022 – not forgetting to appreciate the different moringa actors that have done their part to bring out the moringa industry in Uganda: