Venture Spotlight: Powerstove Energy

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Health Entrepreneurship

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African Impact Challenge

Health Entrepreneurship

Venture Spotlight

Powerstove Energy

Okey Esse and Glory Esse were inspired to create Powerstove Energy by their mom, who was a successful local food vendor. For 21 years, she cooked with firewood to support her business but was later diagnosed of a heart condition caused by constant inhaling of toxic smokes from the firewood. Her death inspired the two co-founders to build Powerstove Energy and carry on her legacy of successful entrepreneurial experiences.  

In Nigeria, where approximately 83 million people endure the harsh realities of extreme poverty and food insecurity, the reliance on conventional fuels like charcoal, firewood, and kerosene exacts a heavy toll. The National Bureau of Statistics paints a stark picture: households devote over a quarter of their income to these energy sources, often at great peril to their health. The insidious effects of household air pollution claim the lives of 100,000 Nigerians annually, disproportionately impacting women and children. 

Powerstove designs and manufactures smart smoke-free cookstoves that also self-generate electricity for users to charge their mobile phones and power home appliances using proprietary renewable bio-pellets as fuel. These sustainable, mosquito repellent bio-pellets are produced from post-harvest crops and wood waste. Powerstove uses 70% less cooking fuel when compared with other unsustainable fuelwood sources and is five times faster than traditional stoves. Powerstove users have been shown to save around $300 annually from cooking with the sustainable and renewable fuels. Unlike other cookstoves, it also provides access to free electricity which helps families in last mile communities, or emergency situations, to save hugely on energy costs by upwards of 83%. The Powerstove team is committed to fostering meaningful partnerships with their waste-suppliers, with a focus on households headed by women. They do this, in part, by providing both cash payments and health insurance to all women waste suppliers and their families. 

If you could give advice to another founder getting started, what would that be?  

“Take risks, listen to your heart and be the most hardworking staff of your company.” 

Looking ahead, the team is looking to continue fostering sustainable growth by introducing Powerstove Kits (PKs), a do-it-yourself, ready-to-assemble version of the Powerstove. This innovation will facilitate the export of the product, further assisted by their ability to flatpack ship the product. The team will in turn provide training to local partners for assembling with minimal resources. PKs address challenges related to high freight costs and duties, which will assist in keeping pricing competitive. They also hope their innovation can generate local employment in host countries, and to scale the number of women waste-suppliers to 3,000 by 2025. 

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