Vortex Cheetah : entrepreneurial Africa

About the company
Eco-fuel Africa Limited is a social enterprise determined to eradicate over dependence on wood-fuel in Sub-Saharan Africa by making organic charcoal for cooking from agricultural waste as an alternative to fuel wood. It was started by local people in June, 2010 as a self-help project. It's based in Uganda, East Africa.
What we do
First of all, we make and distribute organic charcoal from agricultural waste as an alternative to wood-fuel. Our organic charcoal is distributed through a network of small-scale retailers mainly made up of poor women and youths previously surviving on cutting down trees. This is creating alternative green jobs for people at the base of the pyramid.
Secondly, we use our proceeds to plant trees in Africa in order to try and replace those already lost. Our target is to plant at least a quarter of a billion trees in Africa by 2020. This will create will make Africa an immense carbon sink.
Thirdly, we make low-cost kilns and solar-powered briquetting machines from locally available materials and help youth and women groups to start small-scale organic charcoal manufacturing plants. We train these rural women and youth groups in briquette making and supply them with the equipment required. We then link them to markets or buy the charcoal from them directly

				Moses Sanga ••• — determined to eradicate over-dependence on wood-fuel in Sub-Saharan Africa by making organic charcoal from agricultural waste.

				Anne Githuku-Shongwe ••• — empower Africa's future leaders including through interactive digital media.

				Morris Matadi ••• — rehabilitating, educating, and reintegrating former child soldiers.

				Mohamed Ali Niang, Malo Traders ••• — increasing the income of smallholder farmers and providing fortified rice to consumers at an affordable price.

Nuru International was founded by Jake Harriman, a former Special Operations Platoon Commander with the U.S. Marines. After fighting the war on terror around the world, Jake became convinced that the only way to end terrorism is to end extreme poverty. He left the Marines and enrolled at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business to create an organization to end extreme poverty.

Nuru works amongst the rural poor in the developing world. We’re currently working in Kuria, Kenya, and it is from the local language that we got our name: Nuru is a Kiswahili word meaning light.

When Nuru was invited into the community, we mobilized the local farmers into groups. We then trained local leaders using an innovative leadership development model that equips the poor to become the answers to their own problems.

Continued •••

Micro-Irrigation Technologies

Rural Kenyans can no longer rely purely on subsistence farming. They need hard cash to buy enough food and to pay for school fees and healthcare. Yet most live on farms less than two acres in size.

Many thousands of entrepreneurial farmers are now irrigating with KickStart’s manual MoneyMaker irrigation pumps and changing their small subsistence farms into vibrant new commercial enterprises. With irrigation they can grow and sell as many as three to four high value vegetable crops every year, and ensure that the crop is ready for market when the price is high.

These “farmerpreneurs” are increasing their incomes by as much as ten-fold and making as much as 400,000 shillings ($5400) profit per year. KickStart’s low cost micro-irrigation pumps are transforming subsistence farms into highly profitable enterprises.

Impacts of KickStart MoneyMaker Pumps to date:

    •    45,000 pumps in use by poor farmers
    •    29,000 new waged jobs created
    •    $37 million per year in new profits and wages generated by the pumps
    •    More than 50% of pumps managed by women entrepreneurs
    •    4 manufacturers producing pumps
    •    over 400 retailers selling pumps in Kenya, Tanzania and Mali

The Original MoneyMaker Pump

KickStart’s Original MoneyMaker pump was introduced in September 1996. This small treadle operated pump could pull water from as deep as 23 feet (7m) and be used to furrow irrigate up to two acres of land.

Over 4,050 Original MoneyMaker pumps were sold. They are still being used to generate over $3.9 million in new profits and wages every year and they proved the potential of micro-irrigation in East Africa. However, this pump can only pull water from a well or pond and dump it into an irrigation furrow – it cannot push the water thru a hosepipe or up a hill. It soon became clear that Kenyan farmers preferred to irrigate with a hosepipe or sprinklers and wanted to pump water up to their fields on the sides of hills. So in October 1998 KickStart introduced the new Super-MoneyMaker Pump and this new suction and pressure pump superseded the original and the Original MoneyMaker was taken off the market in February 1999.

The Super MoneyMaker Pump

The Super MoneyMaker Pressure Pump was launched in October 1998, in response to a demand by farmers for a pump that can push water uphill as well as simply pulling it up from the source. This means it is suitable for use on steeply sloping land where the water source may be at the bottom. Thousands use it to pump water from hand-dug wells, rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. It is ideal for sprinkler irrigation, filling overhead water tanks, or for use with nozzles and sprays attached to the end of the delivery hose. This powerful pump can draw water up from 23 feet (7m) and has a total pumping head of 46 feet (14m). It can be used to irrigate up to 2 acres of land.

The MoneyMaker Plus Pump

Due to the demand for a lower cost pressure irrigation pump KickStart designed and launched the MoneyMaker Plus pump in July 2001. This small leg operated pump has one piston and one cylinder but can still pull water from 23 feet (7m) deep, has a total pumping head of over 69 feet (21m) and can be used to irrigate as much as 1 acre of land.

					KickStart •••

				Dambisa Moyo interviewed by Erin Burnett, CNBC - covers the essentials very well.

				efGlyph 471 Africans Want to Be Entrepreneurs - Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid — interviewed June 10, 2009

				http://www.youtube.com/user/dambisamoyo#uploads/0/BFABdPOpr2A — directly to the interview

				Is Aid Killing Africa? — video No individual today is more effectively challenging the foreign aid establishment and the harm it inflicts on Africa than Dambisa Moyo, Zambian author of Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is Another Way For Africa. She spoke at a recent Cato book forum and has been ubiquitous in the media. For a sense of her views, here’s an interview I recommend that she recently did with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. —Ian Vasquez

				Magatte Wade and Michael Strong ••• "What? You don't know of African companies that produce some of the coolest goods and services on the planet? Right. Well, then we need to talk. We can introduce you to Africa, a land of new possibilities. An Africa that you can respect as a peer, not as an object of pity.

				Adina for Life, beverages (drink no evil) — a company founded by Magatte •••

				http://www.freemarketfoundation.com/downloads/Zimbabwe_Papers_A_Positive_Agenda_for_Zimbabwean_Renewal_19_May_2009.pdf

				http://africaunchained.blogspot.com/

				Emeka Okafor is a venture catalyst and entrepreneur who lives in New York City. He was the director for TED Global 2007 that took place in Arusha,Tanzania. In addition Emeka is a principal of the Makeda Fund, a private equity fund and a partner in Caranda, a Food & Beverage company. His other interests include sustainable technologies in the developing world and paradigm breaking technologies in general. His blog, Timbuktu Chronicles seeks to spur dialogue in areas of entrepreneurship, technology and the scientific method as it impacts Africa. "Timbuktu is a city unsullied by the worship of idols...a refuge of scholarly and righteous folk, a haunt of saints and ascetics, and a meeting place of caravans and boats" -Al-Sa'Di

				Emeka Okafor links to the story of Temituokpe Esisi, Nigeria, who is building a tailoring business, using knowledge gained from programs sponsored by Goldman Sachs.

				http://www.vitalvoices.org/desktopdefault.aspx?page_id=929

				Address to the Annual General Meeting of the Foundation on 28 August 2008 by Dr. BC Benfield.

				A Message of Hope for South Africa South Africans are engulfed in a state of gloom. They need a message of hope – a signal that will lift their spirits and restore their faith in the future of their country. Post-1994 there was a state of general euphoria. Everyone was proud that the country’s politicians had at last decided to be sensible. Racism had been eliminated as a guiding factor in governance. Authoritarian government, which is its inescapable bedfellow, had been outlawed by a Constitution with a Bill of Rights. The economy started growing again after a long period of stagnation. Golden years followed, when South Africa, after decades of extreme bitterness, appeared to be set for a time of calm, peaceful, vigorous progress – an era of high economic growth that would allow the nation’s undoubted business genius to flourish and rapidly erase poverty. Even the voices of the collectivist ideologues, whose ideology feeds on poverty and misery, became muted and largely ignored. There was hope; South Africa was on a path to greatness. Our President had given us a glimpse of what wisdom and a sense of humour can do to heal the wounds of past stupidities. Righting past wrongs In the intervening years, “righting the wrongs of the past” on a voluntary basis has become little more than government-directed racial preferences that, contrary to the protections contained in the Bill of Rights, has been incorporated in legislation. Additional regulation has interfered increasingly in the ownership rights and management of businesses. Water and mineral rights were nationalised and a flood of ostensibly pro-consumer legislation has steadily eroded the rights of owners and managers of firms and imposed costly compliance burdens on the economy with little or no benefit for the consumer. The only beneficiaries have been armies of new bureaucrats created by this new legislation. While the nation has been victim to one of the highest crime rates in the world, citizens have been given the impression that the government is not making adequate efforts to contain and reduce the scourge. Curtailing crimes against persons and their property, along with the maintenance of well-functioning courts of law that provide expeditious justice, are core functions of the state under any democratic government. A climate of fear has been allowed to develop, in which no one feels safe in their homes, businesses, or cars. Attacks on the Constitution More recently, nothing has had as detrimental effect on the country and its citizens as the utterances of members of the ruling party who have moved from extolling the virtues of the Constitution as “one of the best in the world” to attacking its very purpose, which is to place limitations on government, not to facilitate it. The institutions and checks and balances that the party’s own far-sighted constitutional experts helped put in place were intended to protect future generations of South Africans from power-hungry politicians who want no limits placed on their actions. Zimbabwe has demonstrated the devastating consequences of the usurpation of power by a single individual or party; the destruction of a country’s Constitution and its democratic institutions. South Africans of all races and persuasions have cause to be disturbed by attacks on their own Constitution by members of their own government. What’s to be done? Fortunately, restoring the faith of South Africans in the future of the country should not be difficult. People respond rapidly to the direction of change. For instance, while Eskom’s electricity blackouts engendered feelings of hopelessness and despair, the apparent permanent restoration of supply has quickly returned people to equilibrium. Similarly, vigorous and frequent defence of the country’s Constitution and democratic institutions by senior politicians, particularly of the ruling party, would quickly reverse the current unease felt by most South Africans. Such defence must include an insistence that government departments and officials closely follow the requirements of the Constitution, both in the formulation and application of legislation. Restoring the Constitution to its rightful place in ordering the lives of the citizens of the country would make a positive contribution towards their perspective regarding their future and that of their children. Governments can come and go, but a sound Constitution and the institutions of state that it governs, is a beacon that guides those governments in the manner in which citizens should be treated. Whilst the Constitution rules over government, the people are safe. When government rules over the Constitution, the people are in danger. Constitutions keep people and their property safe, even when their worst enemies are in control of government. Had the current Constitution been in place in 1910, apartheid and all its attendant evils would not have been possible. A high growth path for South Africa’s economy Placing South Africa’s economy on a high growth path should also not be difficult. Whatever collectivist ideologues and development statists might have to say about the matter, the evidence shows clearly that countries with the greatest economic freedom, or more importantly those that are moving towards greater economic freedom have the highest growth rates. If South Africa truly wants to have growth rates equivalent to the best in the world there is only one direction it can go, that is, towards greater economic freedom. Greater economic freedom provides not only higher economic growth rates but higher incomes for the poor; higher life expectancies; lower rates of infant mortality; improved water supplies; less corruption; a better environment; and greater civil liberties. The per capita incomes of the poorest 10 per cent in the most economically free countries is more than 8 times greater at $7,334 (R56,800) than the per capita incomes at $905 (R7,000) of the people in the least economically free countries. Greater economic freedom for South Africa South Africa will become more economically free if it chooses to: • Improve the legal structure, policing, and security of property rights, respect the independence of the judiciary, and drastically reduce crime; • Abolish exchange controls and increase the stability of the rand by improved control over the money supply, which will rapidly reduce inflation, encourage foreign investment, and facilitate trade; • Increase the demand for labour by reducing compliance costs, restore the contractual rights of the unemployed, and lift the regulation of minimum wages to avoid pricing the unskilled out of the market; • Reduce administrative requirements and bureaucratic costs to improve the “ease of doing business”; • Reduce the size of government by reducing government consumption expenditure as a percentage of total consumption, dispose of public enterprises, open up the respective areas of the economy to competition, and reduce top marginal and payroll taxes; and • Channel all BBBEE through the budget, utilising the sale of state assets and taxes to take corrective action, and stop the current random and disruptive interference in the operation of businesses. If our government takes this purposeful action to improve the political and economic environment in South Africa, the gloom and doom will disappear as rapidly as it did when the electricity came back on. People will once again look forward eagerly to a bright future. Right now, South Africa needs to be given a powerful message of hope by its government – a government that has both the capacity and duty to do so. Author: Dr BC Benfield is the Chairman of the Free Market Foundation. This article may be republished without prior consent but with acknowledgement to the author. The views expressed in the article are the authors and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Foundation (Adapted from Dr Benfield’s address to the Annual General Meeting of the Foundation on 28 August 2008.

				Interview with Leon Louw, by Prodos

					LeonLouw1.ram

				Habits of Highly Effective Countries, by Leon Louw

				The complete book (1.5 MB pdf)

				Table of Contents

				CONTENTS ABOUT THE LAW REVIEW PROJECT v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi 1. INTRODUCTION 1 The policy maker’s question 1 South African economic policy 1 2. THE BIG PICTURE 3 Methodology 3 Improving efficacy – CBAs and RIAs 4 Improving constitutionality 5 3. AFRICA, RACE AND POVERTY 6 Is foreign aid foreign harm? 6 Poor advice for poor countries 7 Why Africa is prospering 8 Africa and South Africa in context 9 Are poor countries at a disadvantage? – ‘The Funnel’ 10 Why don’t poor countries choose prosperity? 10 Poor countries have poor policies 14 Land and agriculture 14 Not policy formulation 15 The integrity of the legal system is crucial for growth 15 Growth-inducing factors are not necessarily obvious 18 4. THE GROWTH IMPERATIVE 19 Everything gets better with growth 19 The Good Society and its friends 20 Examples of ‘everything’ 20 Health 21 Literacy 22 Human development 22 Sanitation 23 Water 23 5. POVERTY, INEQUALITY AND DESTITUTION 24 Should there be a ‘war on poverty’? 24 The income gap fallacy 24 In freer economies ‘the rich get richer and the poor get richer faster’ 25 The miracle of poverty 27 Growth, the Eighth Wonder of the World 28 Capital – what it is and does 30 Things people know that just ain’t so 32 Education for growth? 32 Non-factors 33 6. THE MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ‘FREEDOM’ 36 Diverse meanings of ‘freedom’ 36 Economic freedom and its consequences 36 Political freedom and civil liberties 38 Freedom House findings 39 ‘Pure’ statistics 39 7. IMPORTANT FINDINGS 40 The acceleration effect 40 8. CHINA SYNDROME 44 9. FACTORS AFFECTING GROWTH 47 Natural resources – blessing or curse? 47 Does size matter – doing more by doing less? 47 Hypothesis testing 50 Regulation and over-regulation 50 10.CHARACTERISTICS OF WINNERS AND LOSERS 53 Reinventing the wheel 53 Reality matters 53 Are ‘The Fundamentals’ in place – are they The Fundamentals? 54 20:20 Analysis 54 South Africa versus the Top 20 – growth 56 11.SOUTH AFRICA’S SHORT LIST OF ‘WINNERS’ POLICIES’ 59 South Africa ahead of the world’s best in some areas … 59 … but may be regressing 59 South Africa’s ‘Short List’ 60 APPENDIX 62 Economic Freedom of the World Index Components 62

				http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thomas_Bauer

				From 1954 until 1965, Hill was employed as a Research Fellow at the University of Ghana when, as she put it, she became a pupil of the migrant cocoa farmers of Ghana. Thus began her work as 'field economist', a term that best describes the unique fieldwork methods she pioneered. She began her research using the standard questionnaire method and wrote up the result of this research in her second book, The Gold Coast Cocoa Farmer: a preliminary survey (1956). When she subsequently realised that this method had led her to accept uncritically some false, conventional assumptions about the backgrounds of these farmers, she abandoned the method in favour of one that would enable her to make empirical discoveries. Her new method combined the methods of an economic historian, human geographer and economic anthropologist. She made intensive studies of villages, conducted extensive archival work, and situated her findings in the relevant comparative and historical context. All her subsequent works were based on original data that she collected using her rigorous scholarly methods.

				The above is from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050825/ai_n14906118

				Studies in Rural Capitalism in West Africa. By Polly Hill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

				http://greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=61

				Gayle Pergamit, Ed Warner, Steve Elliott, Leif Smith, Jan Prince, Spencer MacCallum, Shannon Ewing, Mark Frazier, Jim Bennett, Henry Okiria, Pat Wagner, Jerry Anderson, Nuru visitors to EF, 08Mar10

				To be invited: Magatte Wade, Michael Strong, Leon Louw, George Ayittey, David Russell (Trickle Up),