Teens' Science Congress idea brings them close to continental prize

GreenChar volunteers from left Ian Oluoch, Brian Kirotich, Yina Sun and Tom Osborn. PHOTO | COURTESY

From a "Science Congress” project to a start-up business making Sh600,000 in a good month. That is the story of two 18-year-olds whose experience with lighting up charcoal while growing up propelled them to come up with smokeless, affordable and easy-to-light charcoal.

Tom Osborn and Ian Oluoch came up with the charcoal idea in early 2013 while both were studying at Alliance High School in Kiambu.

The teenagers presented their idea at the annual Science Congress, which exhibits innovative ideas from students from the district level to the national level, but they were trounced at the county level.

“We came up with the idea after my own experience of lighting my mother’s jiko during school holidays where my eyes would redden because of the smoke,” said Mr Osborn.

The two teenagers founded GreenChar, an organisation based in Awendo, Migori County, that makes a brand of smokeless charcoal from recycled material. The company now has nine employees.

Mr Osborn, who was the brainchild of the project, was nominated for the continental Anzisha Prize along with Nairobi Developer School director Martha Chumo.

The two young Kenyan entrepreneurs will be facing off with 10 other finalists from the rest of Africa in the prestigious prize that is worth $75,000.

Mr Osborn has been running GreenChar along with his co-founder and two other volunteers for nine months now and is glad that the market has received their charcoal brand well.

“When we started, charcoal vendors were reluctant to sell our brand, as it was not known to many users, but slowly it is becoming popular and most preferred,” he added.

He recounted how the start-up team had 10 charcoal vendors selling both the normal charcoal and their smoke-free brand and now six of the vendors sell the new brand exclusively.

The teenagers obtained their start-up capital from a first prize they won during the Innovate Kenya 2013 Awards.

SUGAR CANE WASTE

“We were awarded $3,000 that we used to set up a production facility in Awendo, since that is where I grew up and there was a ready market,” said Mr Osborn.

The workshop sources for raw materials from sugar-cane waste (bagasse) bought from Sony sugar factory. It also uses a paste made from cassava peels.

Bagasse is first dried and burnt in a combustion chamber to reduce the smoking effect. It is then mixed with the cassava paste and pressed hard to obtain the highest density for the product to be able to last longer.

The charcoal, which is the final product, is then dried and packed in 2-kilogramme packets ready for transportation to the market.

“For now, our charcoal that we call Makaa Poa is only available in Awendo and Migori, but we started a pilot programme in Kibera, where it has also been received well,” said Mr Oluoch, GreenChar’s co-founder.

The packets retail at Sh30 in Awendo and Migori, as the transport cost incurred is less due to the towns’ proximity to the workshop.

In Kibera, Makaa Poa retails at Sh40, which is still Sh10 less than the cost of ordinary charcoal.

The duo hopes to scale up their production with the money they hope to win from the Anzisha Prize competition. They plan to increase their production from the current 80 kilograms to about 2 tonnes every month and enlarge the distribution channel to reach other markets.

“We are also planning to complete our project of designing a cooking stove that saves energy and start selling the stoves for increased revenue,” said Mr Oluoch.

The company currently has a monthly expenditure of about Sh400,000 as the nine workers are paid well to motivate them and the bagasse is obtained at Sh500 per tonne.

“The two of us work on voluntary basis and there are two others who volunteer to help us run the company,” said Mr Osborn.

DEFER LAW SCHOOL

Both founders of the company and one of the volunteers are alumni of Alliance High School and all scored an “A” in their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam.

“I was offered a chance to study law at the University of Nairobi starting next year, but I will have to defer (enrolment) for two years as I grow the company to a level where it can be managed by employees,” said Mr Osborn.

For Mr Oluoch, who was admitted to the same university to study for a bachelor of commerce degree, his mother only allowed him to defer his studies to grow the business when he assured her he would pay for his university education from his own pocket when he enrols.

“It was a one-week conversation that involved even presenting a full proposal on the merits and demerits of deferring my studies to concentrate on business, but she finally agreed,” said Mr Oluoch.

The two hope that in two years the business will have stabilised enough to allow them to pursue their higher education in order to be able to manage the business well.

“With the knowledge (from) the different fields, we will be able to manage the business well, and so that is why we feel we still need to go to school,” added Mr Osborn.

Mr Osborn travels to South Africa this week for Anzisha Week, which starts on Thursday, September 18, before the prize gala that will be held on September 23.

Other young entrepreneurs shortlisted for the prize from other countries are Sam Kodo (Togo), Gabriel Kombassere (Ivory Coast), Benedicte Mundele (DRC), Winifred Selby (Ghana), Nteff Alain (Cameroon), Noah Walakira (Uganda), Chineye Okoro Onu (Ghana), Chukwuwezam Obanor (Nigeria), Jeffrey Mulaudzi (South Africa) and Thato Kgatlhanye (South Africa).