On a chilly, but sunny day in June 2022, eleven individuals representing nine small and medium-sized enterprises from Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Africa, gathered for the first step in their new Water and Energy for Food journey. The Southern and Central Africa Hub’s (S/CA) 2022 Regional Convening launched their participation in Water and Energy for Food as winners of the hub’s first call for innovations. It was where they learned about the requirements of their participation in WE4F, explored different key themes, and discussed with WE4F staff how to grow their businesses.
Now, two years later, as these same individuals and their businesses reach their 2024 graduation date, the 2024 S/CA Regional Convening provided a moment for them to reflect on their WE4F experience, share insights and advice with new cohorts, and look back at all the change that occurred over the years.
“There was a maturing throughout the program,” shared Ryan Katayi, Co-Founder of FarmHut Africa, “there is growth.” As one could imagine, the growth is not always where one might expect it. As businesses scale, teams grow and new challenges emerge. “As a man, [I] don’t understand women’s challenges, [but with] a team of 17 women, I need to understand [their] needs.” Ryan further shared that working with the hub changed their company culture for the better. Ryan was able to be more mindful of women’s familial obligations. This mindfulness transferred from their internal operations to their external activities. The innovator also worked to shift language used in their marketing materials to remove words that could be seen as aggressive by women, which in turn, could prevent women from wanting to work with the company.
Arnold Changwe from Solar Village highlighted how working with the Environmental Sustainability Advisor, Taryn Bigwood, made their business more environmentally-friendly. “[We had a] challenge with the disposing of batteries,” Arnold explained. The innovator didn’t know what to do about the issue, but with support from Taryn, they engaged waste management firms and now have a waste management plan.
While Solar Village became more responsible with their waste, through WE4F’s support, COMACO was able to transform their waste into a new product. COMACO now makes charcoal briquettes out of groundnut shells. “[We] used to throw away the groundnut shells, now we run the roasters with the briquettes,” Richard Mumba, of COMACO proudly stated. “[It’s been] so successful, now we’re looking to work with the government and look at [other] industries that use boilers.”
Chris Ayale, CEO of KivuGreen, also saw new growth through the program, with a new website for the company, and new software for weather information. The last is particularly important for their platform and the farmers they work with, as weather information is a critical part of the services provided to smallholder farmers.
Growth, for Lanforce Energy, came in the number of employees the company gained over the course of their WE4F support. “When we started the technical assistance…we had 12 employees,” Judith, CEO of Lanforce Energy explained, “now we have 20, a new website, [and] Open Capital Africa (OCA) support with financial due diligence.” For Judith, OCA (who is the Brokering Unit implementer of the S/CA Hub consortium led by Tetra Tech) support was beneficial for reasons beyond the investment facilitation. The innovator felt supported by the Brokering Unit when the team advocated for Lanforce Energy’s work during the investment facilitation process. In the last year, the innovator has mobilized over $1.2 million in private sector investment and plans on pursuing more.
A key takeaway from the conversation is that not everyone succeeds at the same pace and not everyone’s successes or growth may look the same. Different innovators have different priorities and needs. Even if they provide the same, or similar technology, that does not mean their journey to success or maturity will follow one path. Support from the same technical specialists yields different results that showcase how unique each innovators’ needs are. Additionally, when technical assistance is provided in a collegial and collaborative manner, supported companies notice the difference, benefiting from those relationships.
