How London charity is helping Kenyan energy entrepreneurs break distribution barriers

NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenyan businesses, like in most of sub-Saharan Africa, face numerous roadblocks on the way to delivering clean energy products to ‘hard-to-reach’, low-income customers in rural regions. A number of issues, such as poor infrastructure, dispersed consumers, low product awareness and low purchasing power have made it a hurdle for clean energy products to penetrate. 

In a bid to address these challenges, a London-based charity, GVEP International, is testing different approaches to get biomass briquettes and energy efficient cookstoves across that 'last mile' to millions of potential consumers across the country. These include working with micro-entrepreneurs embedded in local communities; establishing partnerships with existing networks that penetrate low-income markets; and partnering with financial providers to facilitate consumer finance.