Writer: Edward Makobore. PHOTO/FILE
There’s an intriguing story about a man who secured a lucrative deal to supply bananas to a Middle Eastern country. The contract was worth millions but he faced one glaring challenge, the area where he intended to grow his banana plantation was overrun with monkeys. And as everyone knows, monkeys and bananas are inseparable.
As soon as the bananas began to ripen, the monkeys descended on the plantation, feasting on the fruit. But this man wasn’t going to let the monkeys ruin his business opportunity.
First, he tried the usual methods. He deployed dogs around the plantation to chase the monkeys away. This worked for a short while, but the monkeys soon figured out they could easily outrun the dogs and stay safely out of reach in the trees. The businessman then tried using scarecrows, but it didn’t take long for the monkeys to realise these were harmless. Monkeys, as it turns out, are quite clever.
Determined not to give up, the businessman had a breakthrough. He decided to turn the monkeys into a business opportunity. He announced that he would pay Shs20,000 for every monkey caught and delivered to him. Word spread quickly throughout the village.
With unemployment high, villagers leapt at the chance to earn money. They set traps and organised hunting teams. Before long, monkeys were being caught in large numbers. The businessman caged them up and, impressed by the results, raised the price to Shs30,000 per monkey. This increased the villagers’ efforts even further.
Soon, there were hardly any monkeys left in the village. To completely eliminate the problem, the businessman increased the price to Shs40,000 per monkey. With such an attractive offer, the remaining monkeys were quickly captured. The village was now free of monkeys.
With the monkey problem solved, the businessman was able to focus on his banana plantation, eventually exporting bananas worth millions of dollars to the Middle East. The money he had paid for the monkeys paled in comparison to what he earned from his banana exports.
The lessons from this story can be applied to many societal challenges—particularly in tackling the growing problem of garbage in cities like Kampala. The city is plagued by trash, and conventional methods to deal with it have largely failed. Cleaners are overwhelmed, and authorities like the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) have tried heavy-handed measures with little success.
It’s time to try a new “monkey” strategy: incentivising citizens to clean up the city. Just as the businessman offered cash for monkeys, authorities could offer payments for rubbish collected. This rubbish could then be used to power biomass street lighting in the city—what would be the equivalent of the businessman’s "premium market." Waste powered street lighting has been successfully implemented in cities like Oslo in Norway, Pune City in India, Amsterdam in Netherlands and even in Nairobi, Kenya.
With a cash incentive in place, the streets of Kampala could be cleared of garbage in no time. And the beauty of this approach is that the rubbish would not go to waste—it could be transformed into a resource to power street lights, reducing energy costs for the city.
Like the businessman who realised that the cost of paying for the monkeys was small compared to his profits, the benefits of a clean city would far outweigh the costs of paying citizens to collect trash.
We don’t have to look far for inspiration. Kigali has transformed itself into one of the cleanest cities in Africa, attracting investors, business summits, and tourists. The millions of dollars Rwanda reaps from a clean city are proof that this strategy can work elsewhere.
Mr Edward Julian Makobore is an Afronomist and farmer.
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