3 years ago, I visited Cross River State, in Nigeria and when I saw deforestation in Owai and 7 other neighbouring communities I got on my knees and wept. At Owai, I stood and watch the night Ekatteh died, it rained endlessly. Her sullen eyes – scarlet and dilated- shut in with a hot, almost steamy tear, as she let out her final cough which also would be her last breath.
Ekatteh had battled myocardial ischemia for 7 years – a heart disease she contracted from her many years of inhaling smoke from cooking with firewood. She worked as a village food vendor to ensure her three children live and get education, something she did not afford herself.
This story is one of the several million stories of women all over Africa, whose lives have been severely threatened by the harmful consequences of unknowingly inhaling smoke that comes from cooking with charcoal, wood, and dung. I told myself that I will devote my entire life to provide a solution to the problem. When I came back from the journey, I shared my vision with close friends and business partners for over 6 years and they agreed to join the vision and build the product and the company.
Link to online video
Your products and services
Powerstove is an ultra-clean cook stove that burns 70% less biomass, saves lives, generate electricity, improve livelihoods, empower women, and preserve the environment.
Your success factors
- Locally design and manufactured
- Burns any biomass cleanly without smoke
- Cooks 2 liters of water in less than 5 minutes
- Light weight
- Saves 70% on biomass used
- Save 70cents each day it’s been used that is around $250/year
- Generate and supply off-grid electricity to charge mobile phone, power banks, laptop and LED Bulbs
- Costs less than imported clean cookstoves
- Creates sustainable job opportunities for women who assembles and markets the product
- Saves lives
Your factors differentiating and disruptive compared to the existing
- Generates up to 100Watts of electricity from biomass waste energy in the burning chamber
- Burns any biomass (charcoal, sticks, twigs, dry corn cobs, dry grass) cleanly without smoke.
- A biomass stove that burns like LPG Gas stove
- A biomass stove with flame/fire regulator
- A biomass stove that supplies electricity up to 2hours (depending on usage) even after cooking.
- A water resistant-biomass pellets made from agricultural waste that costs less than charcoal per kilo
Your business model
We make money in the following 5 ways:
- Sales of Powerstove at US$59.9 Retail Price with a 41% Profit Margin
- Sales of Biomass Pellets at 70cents per kilo with 80% Profit Margin
- Sales of Accessories at US$1.5 Average Price Per Unit and 15% Profit Margin
- US$2 Service charge per stove for after sales support from Friendship Centers
- Pay-As-You-Use Revenue Model for creditworthy Women Cooperatives
A few words about your competitors
Competition is quite funny, families in Nigeria can have a locally made stove or an imported expensive, inefficient stove from China. And these are the two options and part of the reason why they badly need our cooking stove. Our stove is more efficient, more affordable, generates electricity, burns sticks, twigs, agricultural wastes and biomass pellets.
Your website
http://powerstove.com.ng/
Improving the lives of people right from grass roots.