A five-year programme rewards entrepreneurship across East Africa by supporting micro-businesses to establish energy services and create employment opportunities in rural areas.
Willy Bamwenyena, 25, stands out as a young resourceful entrepreneur, who has been able to identify the energy gap in his community, in rural Uganda, and turned the need into a business opportunity. The GVEP-led Developing Energy Enterprise Project (DEEP) has boosted his business – and that of hundreds of other entrepreneurs across East Africa – to make and sell energy efficient cook-stoves.
Willy’s firewood burning stoves are made from locally available materials such anthill soil and clay. The stoves are popular with many householders in Sissa, and up to 90% now own one. A key reason behind their success is that they are affordable and more energy efficient compared to the traditional 3-stone fireplace. In the long run, stove-owners save money that would have been spent buying firewood; and time – spent drying or collecting firewood. The stoves also reduce indoor air pollution considerably, hence decreasing the chronic health illnesses associated with the emission of harmful fumes from open fires.
Spotting this was a profitable opportunity, Willy started making stoves for his neighbours, initially borrowing tools from his friends. His ability to make use of social capital to get his business off the ground attracted the interest of the DEEP’s staff, who were recruiting enterprising young people in his area.
His entrepreneurial spirit was nurtured by members of the GVEP Uganda team who invited Willy to receive extra training and guidance on how to expand his business. “I wanted to make more income for myself, create more jobs for others, so I jumped at the opportunity to attend the training sessions”, says Willy.
As a result, he learned to break down his business into separate functions and identify areas for improvement. One big gap was marketing; his products were being produced in a remote area and many people around were simply not aware of their existence.
He sought advice from the Kampala-based team and was encouraged to set up a product display room near the Town Hall so that his products could be displayed in a prominent place and be noticed by more people.
Another gap in his skills was active record-keeping. Together with his business mentor, a one-to-one service offered by DEEP, Willy set about putting his sales and expenditure records in order. “Before, it was hard to know whether I was making a profit or not. Now I know how to subtract costs from sales, and I get my profit”.
He also worked hard to improve the quality of his product. Encouraged by these mentoring sessions, he improved the finishing of the product. This along with a more durable, robust design is giving Willy’s product an edge over competing stove producers in the area.
The result of all this hard work has been a demonstrable increase in production, sales and profit. He has been able to employ 6 people full-time. On average he used to sell just 6 stoves per month in the year prior to GVEP’s intervention; nine months later, his monthly sales figure stands at 52, at a profit of $220.
Willy explains how the business now fully sustains his livelihood “I have improved my standard of living, I’ve bought a plot, started constructing a small place of my own, and I’m saving money in my account”
Successful as it is, the market reach of Willy’s business is still small: a radius of just a few kilometres around. Since he has good access to raw materials, Willy is planning to increase his production and begin selling to wholesalers to retail in larger neighbouring towns, hence increasing uptake of the stoves across a wider region. Given his drive to succeed, and the availability of further technical guidance and mentoring from GVEP’s experienced team, this is a very distinct possibility.
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Comments
Sir, I am have red
Sir,
I am have red the topic it is very useful to our man kind.
Give me more in formation /guidance .
regards,
K T Balan.
Thank, you for your
Thank, you for your interest.
You are welcome to watch a series of technology videos from our website: http://www.gvepinternational.org/en/business/training-material