Sam Kyazze has started a small briquette business using a press he built himself. It is a modest affair, housed in a corrugated iron shed and employing just three people, but Sam is already dreaming of turning briquette making into an industry.

The idea came to him while attending a training session under the GVEP International led Developing Energy Enterprises Programme East Africa (DEEP). After the training, Sam set out to increase his knowledge of briquettes, traveling to several parts of the country at his own expense to learn from the experience of others.

Briquettes are new to Uganda, but with wood and charcoal becoming increasingly expensive they have huge potential. ‘The market is already there,’’ says Sam.

The bonus of briquettes is that they are made from waste materials. Old cardboard boxes are torn up and soaked in water for 2-4 days and then pounded in a mortar to produce a starchy pulp, which serves as a binder. This paste is then mixed with other ingredients such as sawdust, rice husks and charcoal dust. All of these materials are available free for nothing; people are happy for him to take their waste away.

A cup full of the resulting sludge is poured into a metal cylinder into which a wooden piston is inserted. A simple wooden press is then used to depress the piston expelling the water and compacting the solid material. The resulting ring shaped briquettes are then put out in the sun to dry. The hole in the middle aids drying and also ensures the briquettes burn well.

Currently the workshop produces 700 briquettes a day, each one made individually. Sam aims to raise production to 1000 a day. All of the equipment he fabricated himself, and labour is cheap. The main expense is the cost of transport for collecting the raw materials. Sawdust is in ready supply from his own workshop but briquettes made with saw dust tend to smoke, so Sam favours rice husks and charcoal dust, which is left behind by roadside charcoal sellers.

Four briquettes sell at 500 Ugandan Shillings (US 20 cents) and are considerably cheaper than wood or charcoal. But persuading people to adopt a new product takes time and effort. Sam’s marketing method is to give away samples, asking only for feedback in return. In such a way he is rapidly gaining customers.

He has one major client who owns a poultry farm and needs heat to incubate chicks. Before briquettes this farmer used charcoal, but has discovered that briquettes work just as well, and are much cheaper. Sam’s neighbours are regular customers and he hopes soon to supply the local school. To cast the net wider Sam would like to employ women charcoal sellers to distribute the briquettes. Through his DEEP training Sam became more aware of the potential of working together with women.

Sam is full of praise for the DEEP team locally. ‘Whenever I have a problem I know I can contact them for advice,’ he says. He is generous with his time, happy to pass what he has learnt on to other partners, indeed he is currently mentoring nine other people in briquette making.

Sam’s next move will be to construct three more presses and employ and train more people so that he can increase his production to 4000 units per day. Beyond that he hopes to buy a commercial briquette making machine, and has been researching what is available through the internet. Once he has found the right machine he will take out a loan to buy it. He has no doubts about being able to make the repayments. As a result of the DEEP training he keeps regular records of his business and can demonstrate its profitability.

‘The idea has really taken flight,’ said Sam, smiling. ‘It hits my pocket and enables me to employ others. It will help us save the forests and it uses up waste. It is very, very beneficial. Rich from scrap.’

Photo legend: A member of Sam’s team creates binding material for the briquettes