Household energy consumption behaviour in East Africa: Lighting & Conclusion (3 of 3 Parts)
The following is extracted from a six month study during 2012 on household energy consumption behaviour in rural Kenya and Rwanda among the lower income demographic, that led to an understanding of some of barriers hampering the sales of client’s solar products in this market. This 3rd and final part will focus on fuel […]
Household energy consumption behavioural study in East Africa: Cooking (Part 2 of 3)
The following is extracted from a six month study during 2012 on household energy consumption behaviour in rural Kenya and Rwanda among the lower income demographic, that led to an understanding of some of barriers hampering the sales of client’s solar products in this market. This 2nd part will focus on fuel usage and consumption […]
Introduction to rural household energy consumption behaviour in East Africa (1 of 3 parts)
The following is extracted from a six month study during 2012 on household energy consumption behaviour in rural Kenya and Rwanda among the lower income demographic, that led to an understanding of some of barriers hampering the sales of client’s solar products in this market. This first part is an overview of household financial management […]
Tilting at windmills – inevitably renewable
Windmills, Holland October 1st, 2012 Why was it so hard for people to massively change energy infrastructure? There are parts of the world where as little as 10% of the population has access to energy. Innovative solutions and business models can be tested very easily. The latest we hear is MKopa from Kenya, attempting to […]
Why have I been getting so grumpy about well meaning social enterprise?
Yesterday’s post deconstructing The Economist article on the promise of solar lighting for the millions of poor living without electricity made me question my strongly worded response. Another recent one is from well meaning Guardian, whose first of the 15 innovations they claim will change lives in Africa is the now forgotten Hippo Roller. Even […]
Deconstructing the solar lighting market hype
Nairobi solar lantern shop, July 12th 2012 The Economist’s Q3 2012 Technology Quarterly has a paean on the promise of solar lanterns replacing nasty, stinky kerosene once and for all. Of note is the careful mention of MKopa, a Nairobi based startup founded by Nick Hughes of MPesa fame, until now conducting pilot tests in […]
Branded travel
Vehicle to reach deep into the interior of rural Rwanda. Did tend to overheat on the steep sections of the mountainous country’s roads. This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
What does it mean when Chinese manufacturers enter the social enterprise space?
“The market has been destroyed for solar” or so I heard today from someone who prefers to stay anonymous but I’d hazard a guess knows a fair bit about what is happening on the ground in East Africa from the point of view of social enterprises. Interestingly, I’d brought up the question of whether “It […]
Where are the appliances designed to be used with renewable energy sources?
LPG powered fridge for sale in Eastern Cape, South Africa Almost 2 years ago in early 2010 I wrote about the opportunities for disruptive innovation in the emerging markets of the then developing world. One of the 5 case studies was that of the following concept: Re-imagined household appliancesRefrigerators have come to the forefront of […]
How do you compete in a market where charity distorts pricing?
Strategy guru Michael Porter’s 5 forces framework is quite well known to anyone attempting to assess or analyze the landscape of an operating environment for an industry or organization. Increasingly, since I’ve begun working out of Sub Sahara I’ve been sensing the challenge of a 6th force – one that is overlooked when consumer markets […]
