By Victor Turinawe
Peelcycle group have emerged as winners of the 2026 Idea Pitch of Uganda Christian University (UCU)-Hanze University of Applied Sciences Collaboration exchange academic programme.
This was during a half day programme that was held at Ham Mukasa Library at UCU Mukono Campus, where four student groups presented their project pitches for the UCU-Hanze Summer camp under the theme “How to do Business in Africa”. The event was held on Friday July 24, 2026.
The four groups included Peelcycle whose pitch was recycling banana peels into reusable materials such as charcoal; Ecocycle Organics whose pitch was making organic fertilisers; Euro-African Alliance whose idea was connecting business people between Europe and Africa; and Students’ E-shopping specialising in a creating a fraud free online shopping platform. Peelcycle was announced as the winner, followed by Ecocycle Organics. Euro-African Alliance and Students’ E-shopping came third and fourth respectively.
The members of Peelcycle are Christine Ariaka the team leader, Juan Pederio Molina Bustos from Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Mercy Jubilee Dokini, Samara Kabeho and Innocent Bright Magezi.
According to Ariaka, their victory was a result of team work.
“As a team, we had several business ideas at the beginning. One of them was a solar-powered cold storage solution, among many other good and practical ideas. However, the matooke peeling idea came in as our last option. We wanted to come up with something innovative and unique because most of the ideas we had were already in existence. We were looking for something new that could stand out.”
Speaking about their win, Ariaka said, “We were all very excited because all the effort we had put into developing the idea had finally paid off. It was rewarding to see that our hard work had produced positive results. It was a mixture of emotions. We felt excited, overwhelmed and grateful at the same time. Most importantly, we celebrated the achievement as a team rather than as individuals.
“Our next step is to further develop the idea and make it commercially viable. We want to refine the product and eventually see it being used in restaurants and other businesses,” Ariaka said.
The judges, led by Carol Mugide from Innovation Village and Andrew Tugume from Start Up Africa emphasised carrying out systematic research and a feasibility study for the business idea to be pursued.
“Conducting research and a feasibility study helps you to bring out the element of uniqueness from what already exists in the market for the field you’re venturing into, and the reason for your target customers to opt for your products,” said Tugume.
Mugide added, “Conducting research also helps to guarantee your targeted customers that the product you’re selling has no negative side effects as a result of its usage. For example if it’s organic chemicals, farmers must be aware they are not going to affect their gardens.”
Aston Aryamanya, a lecturer and the caretaker of the programme at UCU explained that the programme is in the Idea stage but it will be turned into a income generating project.
“Previously UCU staff and students have been going there, Now they came to Africa under the theme ‘How to do Business in Africa’. When we are there, it changes to ‘How to do business in Europe’,” said Aryamanya.
Hanze University of Applied Sciences from the Netherlands, has a university hub operating in East Africa under this exchange programme with UCU being its Ugandan partner.
