About 70 percent of Zambia's 20 million residents live below the international poverty line of two dollars and fifteen cents per day.

Our guest Ekberg Satoko is taking action to help alleviate this dire situation.

At the core of her efforts is a fruit that grows naturally and abundantly in Zambia - the banana.

She's built a business making and selling paper made from banana stems, which are normally thrown away as garbage.

The goal is to generate income and jobs in rural areas.

Before I get the job from banana factory, it was very difficult for me to earn something that I can take someone to college,

but once I get the job, now things are easy for me.

The banana paper has been turned into items such as letter paper, notebooks, and paper bags.

These products are sold in 29 countries around the world, including Japan and the UK, and sales have been increasing every year.

We ask Ekberg about her unique approach to using bananas to reduce poverty in Zambia.

We are using the banana fibers, which grows only one year, instead of the normal paper material,

which is the wood pulp, which is growing sometimes five, six years, up to 30 years.

Therefore, our banana paper is more sustainable way of making papers.

This is the village of Mfuwe, located about 500 kilometers east of the Zambian capital of Lusaka.

This village of banana fields is Ekberg's base of operations.

She purchases banana stems from partner banana farmers.

Then, the fibers are extracted in-house at this factory.

There are 25 workers here, all Zambians.

The extracted fibers are dried in the sun.

Everything up to this point is done locally in Zambia.

The papermaking is done in Japan.

We used to use just by hand, but now we have a very simple machine to extract the banana fibers.

By hand, maybe in a day, 5 kgs or so, 5 kilograms.

Now we can produce per day, 50 kilograms, instead of the 5 kilograms.

The fibers are sent to a papermaking company in Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture,

a production center for traditional Japanese washi paper.

First, they mix together water and wood pulp.

Then comes banana pulp, which is made by mixing the fibers with caustic soda

and boiling the mixture at a high temperature for a long time until it softens.

They add 5 to 20 percent banana pulp by weight and blend the mixture until smooth.

Next, a papermaking machine turns the pulp mixture into long sheets...

...which are then cut into smaller sheets.

The banana stem paper is ready.

It's always feeling wonderful to see the finished paper,

because we know how much effort we have put in Zambia.

So, it's a very special moment every time for me to see this paper.

Their banana stem paper is now being turned into over 150 different products,

which are sold at stationery stores across Japan and online.

Fortunately, our banana paper story is introduced in the textbook for high school students to learn English.

And then, some of the students from different high schools,

they get so impressed, and they decided to negotiate directly together with the principals.

And then, they asked him or her to use banana papers for their graduate certificate.

So, they adopted our banana papers for that purpose.

Ekberg's idea for her business came from a trip she took in 2006.

She was working at an environmental consulting firm at the time, and visited Zambia with her Swedish husband.

The purpose of their trip was to see the wildlife at one of the country's national parks,

but they were shocked when they saw the poor living conditions of people in a nearby village.

Mfuwe is a beautiful place, first of all, and a lot of wildlife and wild animals and so on.

And also with beautiful people.

But at the same time, we found out the poverty problem is very severe,

and it connects to the illegal poaching of wildlife and also illegal logging, the cutting the forest,

to get it and sell those wood for cooking.

So at that time, we saw the clear link between the poverty problem and also those environmental issues.

We wanted to start something that we can directly create the job opportunities for local people.

And then, we looked for other options.

And then, we found out people can make the papers out of banana fibers.

Ekberg started approaching local banana farmers and sharing her idea to make banana paper.

But she says their reaction was not what she expected.

They didn't believe us at all at the beginning.

They had that banana farms more than, more than 30 years,

but for them, it was the first time for them to hear that you can make the papers out of banana fibers.

They thought we are making jokes with them.

Many of them wouldn't give her the time of day, but she managed to find four farmers who showed an interest.

Together, they began extracting fibers from the banana stems.

They found that hours of hard work yielded only a small amount.

Since they couldn't turn it into paper themselves, Ekberg decided to ask a Japanese firm to handle it.

She contacted every papermaking company she could find in Japan, asking for their cooperation, but most refused.

The only firm that got on board is this one, which remains their only papermaking partner to this day.

At first...

we simply turned the banana fibers into powder

and threw it in with the other raw materials.

But the finished paper would be uneven.

When you'd print something on it, it came out patchy.

And it was prone to damaging the printer.

There were a variety of issues.

We'd develop samples and show the client.

Based on their feedback, we'd make revisions.

It took us about three years to arrive at what we have now.

Ekberg-san was determined to get banana paper out into the world.

We thought what she was doing was really cool.

They were so open towards the new ideas, and also they are very willing to help us,

even at the early stage when we don't know what happened next step,

yeah, so we very appreciated that this kind of the meeting.

A year later, in 2012, she and her husband, Peo, established their company.

In 2014, they built a factory in Zambia.

The company currently has contracts with 60 banana farmers.

By purchasing their banana stems at a fair price, they're helping bolster their income.

Online staff meetings are held regularly to share updates and stay in close contact.

How's everything now?

Yeah, the load shedding, yeah, like for this week, schedule is from 05 until 17 hours.

So, 17 hours, everyday?

Every day, yeah.

For just this week.

Next week, we can get.

OK, so we will get some electricity?

Yeah, during the daytime, yeah.

So I'm really saying thank you so much for banana factory,

for the opportunity given to me to have a job.

Now I'm able to take my wife to school that is college level.

She wants to become a nurse.

And my daughter at preschool level.

So next Monday, they'll be some opening.

So "zikomo kwambiri," thanks a lot.

Usually it is said like the one income support 10 people, or around 10 people.

So which means we are employing 25 people, means 250 people are depending on that income.

Thanks to those incomes and the team members making some savings, so which is, you know, we are very happy.

The company has now been in business for 12 years.

Up until now, the papermaking and developing of products has been done in Japan, but they hope to do more in Zambia.

They successfully applied for a partnership with JICA, the agency that handles Japan's official development assistance.

With their support, they're laying the groundwork to make their plans a reality.

As a next step, we want to bring the process of pulping to Zambia,

instead of doing it in Japan, so that we can create more jobs in Zambia.

If we can succeed to make the pulp in Zambia,

then, not only that Japan, but also we can sell those pulp to different paper factories in different countries.

Ekberg is also exploring the possibility of using banana stems beyond papermaking.

She's working with a professor at Kanazawa University on a research project to turn the fibers into biodegradable plastic.

They have already the techniques and the technology

to make the banana fibers into the biodegradable plastic.

And they are now making different types of the products.

One of them is water-absorbent polymer,

so that it can be used like diapers, and also the farming, so that they can keep the water inside the soil.

So usually the polymer is made by oil-based plastic,

yeah, but this one is biodegradable and also they're using the banana fibers, so it can be, go into the soil afterwards.

We want to be like a platform for sustainable innovation, too.

So not only for papers, but also we want to be very open towards the new ideas to collaborate with different stakeholders.

So that part we want to put more effort in the future.

Do you have any words to live by?

"Fast Alone, Far Together."

This is an African proverb.

And it says if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.

Through this, our banana paper project,

we are collaborating with a lot of different stakeholders, partners, and also team members, too.

So without this collaboration we cannot reach, and we couldn't reach this far.

So it's very important to collaborate and to go together, I think.