Powerstove

by

Okey Esse | Jul 28, 2020 | in Women in technology challenge | Tech solutions for communities

State your goals

1. To eliminate deforestation caused by woodfuel demands and indoor air pollution from traditional cooking practices which kill over 4 million people annually mostly mother and their children.

2. To ensure women are drives of technical skills development in communities and encourage active female school enrollment. 

3.  To economically empower women through as last mile distributors using mobile phone and internet technologies and support them to grow their business to profitability.

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

Nigerians are losing their jobs as both individuals and MSMEs face undaunted challenges due to the snowballing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging the economy. According to the maiden report of COVID-19 impact monitoring survey recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), out of 1,950 households surveyed on a nationally representative sample, 42% of the respondents who were working before the outbreak were no longer working and the poorest households reported the highest share of Nigerians who stopped working (45%), while 35% of the wealthiest household also affected.

Also, a high rate of households reported income loss since mid-March 2020, as 79% of households reported that their total income decreased, the rate was highest for income from non-farm family business (85%) compared to household farming, livestock or fishing (73%) and wage employment (58%).

According to NBS, between 35-59% of households could not afford to buy staple foods and 26% of households who needed medical treatment were not able to get them. While households are facing economic shocks, they are also attempting to adapt and cope with the current realities like learning new skills/trade (51% of all households), reducing food consumption (31%) and drawing down their savings (29%).

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

Currently households and MSMEs facing economic shocks want to start new business to adapt and cope with the current realities on covid19 crisis to survive and afford family food needs. However, most of them lack the funds and skill to migrate; hence Powerstove is providing digital training and Branded Kiosks equipped with goods worth $1,200 per business to serve as last-mile distributors of clean energy products.

Powerstove have completed design and development of Tier 4 clean cookstove and successfully integrated the IoT technology, which is currently in use in over 5,300 homes. Based on the launch of expanded factory, we are optimistic that in the next 12 months we will be serving 128,600 homes and in the next five years our target is to reach 1 million users comprising 850,000 homes and 150,000 institutions namely schools, hospitals, care homes, prisons, hotels and restaurants directly with our products.  

Powerstove IoT data which is monitored through large-screen smartphone of field staff has enabled our field team to remotely detect mechanical breakdowns, allowing our teams of women technicians to quickly repair the stoves resulting in continuous product usage by these families. These women users are rewarded with micro-payments up to US$96 commensurate with number of hours of usage paid directly to their bank accounts. Additionally, remittance of carbon credits to families based on Powerstove usage has led to increased cookstove usage among women which also enable them to keep savings money from alternative efficient cooking fuel of up $300 per annum. Also, electricity generated from the stove increased daylight activities for the household including children’s education.

Share your story (your narrative)

I started Powerstove out of personal childhood experience. As a child that grew up in the village without access to electricity till age 16, cooking with firewood was my worse moments (thick smokes, unbearable heat and uncontrollable fires) unknown to me incessant coughs we experienced were as a result of firewood smokes and that memory hunted me growing up. So, while growing up, I was overwhelmed how inefficient cooking and lack of electricity has been the twin problems hindering human and socio-economic development of 3 Billion people globally. This discovery coupled with losing my mum who severely battled for 7 years and died from myocardial ischemia – 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 seven children live and get education, something she did not afford herself, shaped my decision to study Physics in the university.

So, while studying Physics Electronics in the University I focused on how to build a single most affordable product that can solve all these problems associated with inefficient cooking and lighting with candles, kerosene, charcoal, and firewood. Today, after long painstakingly efforts, I successfully designed and developed Powerstove, a Tier 4 clean cookstove that is smokeless and superb efficient. With Powerstove, I utilized IoT and Blockchain technology to increase the liquidity, legitimacy, and efficiency of global carbon markets generated from clean cookstoves to provide opportunity for poor and low-income women in remote and rural areas to earn up to $420 per annum (double their income) using mobile technology, hence allowing them to afford better nutrition, improved livelihood, and basic healthcare. There are over 3 Billion people globally that relies on traditional open fire cooking, I want to use Powerstove to change their world in the most affordable, efficient and sustainable pathway.

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

Powerstove provides clean electricity for household lighting, charging of mobile phones and clean cooking energy in the form of wood pellets in energy-poor regions of the world, where tens of thousands of homes lack electricity, women relies on hazardous and substandard sources of light, such as candles, charcoal, firewood, kerosene lanterns and flashlights, leading to tragic outcomes.

To date, Powerstove has: Distributed 10,325 Powerstove in 70 communities with affordable clean cookstove, reliable light and power, Served 8,000 mothers, Trained 3,000 women Direct Sales Representatives in our technology, Averted more than 242,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and Partnered with 45 local and international organizations. A 12-month study of Powerstove solution in 100 Nigerian households showed improvements in children’s education, and quality of life, including 67% fewer indoor pollution health incidence, a 60% reduction in cost of cooking fuels and a 95% increase in night time activities.

In 2019, we launched an international "Light Every Home"(LEH) initiative to solve the problem of energy-poverty in 1,000,000 households by 2025. We are calling upon governments, UN agencies and international NGOs to support clean energy adoption and ensure that every household in rural and urban communities has clean cookstove and lighting and continuous power for improved livelihood.

Your Final Proposal for challenge

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