Another crowd-funding campaign has been launched in Africa, this time from GreenChar, a Kenyan social biomass and cookstoves enterprise. The crowd-funding campaign is aimed at promoting the use of clean cookstoves and charcoal made from agricultural waste.
To date, the business has raised $3,000 of its $30,000 (3 million Kenya Shillings) target.
The enterprise aims to reach out to 100,000 households over the next year and provide training to 100 independent women and young micro-entrepreneurs to develop retail businesses.
GVEP International, the non-profit organization working to alleviate poverty in developing countries through increased access to sustainable, renewable energy, is supporting the campaign that was launched in early March 2016 on the mobile phone fundraising app M-Changa. In collaboration with the UK Department for International Development (DFID), GVEP will match donations up to $30,000.
“Entrepreneurs will be trained on financial literacy, marketing and sales besides being empowered to start their own distribution networks. We will build small shops where women will sell briquettes and cookstoves and also engage in other business activities of their choice,” says Tom Osborn, founder of GreenChar.
The businesses will be set up in Nairobi’s informal settlements of Kawangware, Kibera and Mathare as well as in Western Kenya’s Migori, Homabay and Kisii counties.
“Our target is to raise $15,000 in the next 60 days. This amount will be matched by GVEP to enable us to roll-out our energy access plan. We plan to attract 300 supporters out of the 80 that have contributed so far,” says Osborn.
The M-Changa platform uses Kenya’s main mobile money transfer platforms Safaricom M-pesa, Airtel Money and Equity Bank’s Equitel. It also accepts funds through Simbapay and Paypal.
Osborn says they plan to embrace social media and enhance direct contacts in a bid to hit the target. “We will organise a barbecue festival where we will use our briquettes as a way of attracting interest in our crowdfunding campaign,” he says.