The species has diverse economic and environmental uses across many farming and pastoral communities in Africa.

[2] In some dryland areas in Africa for example, it is a very good source of dry season livestock fodder, because it produces highly nutritious foliage[3] in large amounts[4] all year round.

Parts of the plant edible for livestock include, leaves, twigs and barks, and their nutritional value varies with season.

When praying for rain, an elder performs a sacrifice to Ngai (God) by fanning the smoke of a roasted, fattened lamb up the tree (Mugumo), inviting Ngai (God) to descend from above the clouds for the feast.

So revered is the Mugumo tree in the Mount Kenya region that, in 2020, the President of Kenya issued a decree protecting a Ficus thonningii from being uprooted during the construction of the Nairobi Expressway.