Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy Limited

Globally, nearly 1 billion people have no electricity. In Uganda, 73 percent of the population is without access. People are forced to burn kerosene, wood and charcoal to meet their lighting and energy needs. These inefficient fuels lead to indoor air pollution that causes 2.6 million premature deaths worldwide each year, plus threats like house fires and burns. Off-grid living also stifles productivity, hinders earning potential and increases household energy expenditures. Nearly 300 million kids cannot study after sunset, leaving them academically disadvantaged. Countless businesses are forced to shutter at sundown, reducing available working hours.

PEA will provide last-mile distribution and end-user financing of  solar lanterns and improved cook stoves to families living on less than $2 a day in rural Uganda that create healthier and safer homes, increase productivity, reduce household expenses and provide additional income-generating opportunities if globally scaled.

Globally, nearly 1 billion people have no electricity. In Uganda, 73 percent of the population is without access. People are forced to burn kerosene, wood and charcoal to meet their lighting and energy needs. These inefficient fuels lead to indoor air pollution that causes 2.6 million premature deaths worldwide each year, plus threats like house fires and burns.

Off-grid living also stifles productivity, hinders earning potential and increases household energy expenditures. Nearly 300 million kids cannot study after sunset, leaving them academically disadvantaged. Countless businesses are forced to shutter at sundown, reducing available working hours. And poorer households reliant on traditional fuels spend a relatively larger share of their total expenditure on energy. All together, these factors perpetuate a vicious cycle of poverty. Together, we can change this. 

Today, there are innovative, entrepreneurial solutions to poverty that aim to bring basic services to poor families and their communities. The key becomes how to provide access to quality and affordable products to markets deemed difficult to reach (rural) and uneconomical to serve (low-income).

Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy  provides education, distribution, financing and after-sales support for clean energy products which include solar lanterns and improved cook stoves. We provide last-mile distribution and end-user financing of clean energy products to families living on less than $2 a day in rural Uganda that create healthier and safer homes, increase productivity, reduce household expenses and provide additional income-generating opportunities

Solar lanterns are small and portable lights that may be hand-held, hung or placed on a table top. Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy Limited offers a solar lantern that provides 12 hours of high-power light after a single day of charge. 

Improved Cookstoves

PEA offers modern and innovative firewood and charcoal cookstoves. These products cut toxic emissions by up to 90 percent and reduces fuel use by 50 percent or more. One clean cookstove in particular uses the heat from cooking to generate enough energy to cook faster than a normal stove

 PEA recruit, train and support women and youth Energypreneurs with all the inputs they need to start and manage their clean energy business, including business training, mentoring, access to quality products, access to working capital, and business management tools.

PEA targets customers that are of low-income households living on less than $2 PPP a day, live in rural communities, between 18-75 years, generally smallholder famers and small business owners living in under-served, off-grid markets. To learn about their needs, we create awareness and education of clean energy products among off-grid and underserved populations, Recruiting, training and supporting women and youth entrepreneurs to do last mile distribution and conducting market research on clients’ product experience to share with manufacturers as part of research and development.

PEA partners with existing Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) systems and local leaders in rural communities to learn about the challenged faced by villagers, arranging large education workshops about the benefits of clean energy products and how best they can have access to our products through a network of local recruited, trained and supported women and youth Energypreneurs in their communities. By Providing families living on less than $2 a day in rural Uganda with access to high quality, affordable and durable clean energy products, helping them break the poverty e.g. a family who own 1 PEA solar lantern, 1 PEA cook stove and 1 PEA water filter is capable of saving 73% of their monthly cooking, lighting and medical expenses, improving on health due to reduced exposure to smoke, improved performance of school children due to clean light at night.

Access to affordable, high quality and durable clean energy products enable low-income households, Women and youth entrepreneurs, small and new businesses, especially in under-served communities, to prosper and create good jobs through access to clean energy, start up capital, networks, and technology.

Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy ltd is currently testing clean energy products and business model in Mayuge district, eastern Uganda through; 1) Recruiting, training and supporting women and youth entrepreneurs to do last mile distribution, 2) Leveraging the connection with “Green Business at Home” a social project to build customer trust, 3) Promoting awareness and education of clean energy products among off-grid and underserved populations, 4) Supporting access to affordable, life-changing products through cash payments or installment payment plans, 5) Distributing high-quality clean energy products that are backed by warranties down to the last mile, 6) Providing client training on product use and maintenance, including after-sales support, and 7) Conducting market research on clients’ product experience to share with manufacturers as part of research and development

 PEA is testing the products and business model to over 100,000 lives living on less than US$ 2 a day in rural communities of Mayuge.

Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy  empowers rural low-income households with holistic solutions to their economic and social challenges by providing them with access to affordable, durable and high-quality clean energy products and economic opportunities. The Enterprise aims to spread clean energy products across Uganda and Africa with the help of a direct sales network of Entrepreneurs. 

To our knowledge, None of our competitor is bridging the information and distribution gap between clean energy manufacturers and the end users and also involving community members in the distribution value chain like recruiting, training and supporting women and youth Energypreneurs with all the inputs they need to start and manage their clean energy business, including business training, mentoring, access to quality products, access to working capital, and business management tools. our competitors include Village Energy, Village Power, D.light solar, and Green light planet. All offer solar lanterns and solar home systems that expensive, inaccessible and rely on sales agents to promote their products. PEA is unique as it is a stand-alone social enterprise  providing education, financing, after-sales support and  last-mile distribution of clean energy products to families living on less than $2 a day in rural Uganda that create healthier and safer homes, increase productivity, reduce household expenses and provide additional income-generating opportunities 

since establishment in 2018, we have served a total of 3,650 direct low-income households, 25,000 indirect beneficiaries and 50 women and youth entrepreneurs

Following are the numbers for last three years: 2020: 1200 people, 2019: 1500 people, 2018: 950 people and Entrepreneurs 2020: 50 people, 2019: 25 people and 2018 10

• Our social impact is measured using different indicators and measures which include, the jobs created for marginalized youth and women in rural areas who sell the products to end user for commission. These are areas that historically have been neglected by authorities on issues such as electricity, education and health care. These areas have little economic activity leading to high unemployment. Being aware of their plight, we are able to engage members of our community in a way that uplifts their livelihoods socially and economically. Currently they earn less than $2 PPP a day.
• Hours of Kerosene Exposure Reduced- Kerosene Hour Factor x Number of Customers
• Hours of Smoke Exposure Reduced- Smoke Hour Factor x Number of Customers
• Health Improvement - Decrease in Chest Pain, Eye Irritation, Fever
• Amount of Kerosene Reduced- Kerosene Factor x Number of Customers
• Amount of Emissions Prevented- Emissions Factor x Number of Customers
• Amount of Trees Saved from Deforestation-Tree Factor x Number of Customers
• Attitude Change about Environment- percentage change of Clean Energy Product Owners vs. Non-Owners Reporting Increased Knowledge of Environment Issues
• Number of Customers- Number of Customers Counted in Sales Data
• Number of Energypreneurs recruited- Number of active Employees
• Employee Empowerment- of Energypreneurs Reporting Increase in Confidence
• Cost Savings for Customers- Cost Savings Per Product x Number of Customers
• Female Customer Time Savings- Female Hours Factor x Number of Customers

Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy Ltd has 5 full time staff, 50 part-time staff and 02 volunteers

Our teams at PEA are ideal leaders for this project because we are a group of dedicated individuals with personal ties to our mission. With the use of unsustainable cooking fuels in our communities, our founders both experienced personal tragedies related to fire outbreaks. These experiences have drawn us and our team closer to our mission of ensuring all households have access to clean energy. Our leadership also has extensive clean energy experience. Following are our team members responsible for delivery of the solution:

1. Elvis Kadhama- Founder and Executive Director

2. Jockas Matte- sales and marketing creative

3. Stella Kabasomi- systems and operations creative

4. Andrew Ebotu- research and product development creative

Our teams at PEA are ideal leaders for this project because we are a group of dedicated individuals with personal ties to our mission. With the use of unsustainable cooking fuels in our communities, our founders both experienced personal tragedies related to fire outbreaks. These experiences have drawn us and our team closer to our mission of ensuring all households have access to clean energy. Our leadership also has extensive clean energy experience. 

Elvis Kadhama- Founder and Executive Director, brings 3 years’ experience from his former employment in solar energy from MKOPA solar as a

customer field support manager, Kaliro Solar as a sales and marketing manager and Pride Microfinance as a customer care and credit officer in solar energy department. He holds a diploma in Business Studies from Uganda College of Commerce Tororo.

Matte Jockas is responsible for managing sales and marketing, he brings 4 years working experience from Solar now Uganda, where he was a client sales officer, he brings skills and experience in sales and marketing, customer

relationship building, installations, and product repairs and maintenance. 

Stella Kabasomi is responsible for managing systems and operations, brings 4 years of experience from at Makerere University, National Forestry Authority, EbaPreneur Solution Uganda and challenges Uganda,  acquired knowledge, skills and abilities in sustainable environment, ecology and energy solutions design. She harnessed networking resources, made possible through MasterCard Foundation Scholar’s Program wherein she acquired skills that shaped her as an outstanding transformative leader with a sense of entrepreneurship, innovative thinking, and creativity.

We are applying to the Challenge for many reasons: access to business expertise for our growth phase, the solve will help us lay the foundation for scaling our operations. The funds will enable us to expand into a new geographical region, learning how to take our model beyond Mayuge district to the rest of Uganda. Additionally, Solve will help PEA achieve its  goal of scaling its relationships with millions of low-income communities around the world. I aspire to positively impact the lives of rural communities in developmental activities, I am looking for an opportunity to build leadership, networking, communication, problem-solving, and collaboration skills by studying best practices from diverse groups during the fellowship, I expect to understand best practices in leading groups, understand personal leadership strengths and tendencies, and being able to respect diversity, I would love to learn from other participants and mentors’ journey, their stories, their success, their failures, their experiences, and their mistakes. I will love to receive feedback about my start up and grow from the feedback received.

We are interested in developing a set of responsive partnerships that support Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy program growth, strategy and vision – while providing our partners access to access to clean, affordable, high quality and durable products. We also hope to receive some mentorship from experts who have supported social enterprises opening for-profit subsidiaries, and other models that could be relevant to us.  we need partners who can help us find authentic ways to access government funding and measure success without commodifying and dehumanizing our communities.

As we plan to scale and grow our solution beyond Uganda, we would like to partner with UNDP, USAID, MIT solve, Acumen Fund – Acumen has been working to bridge gaps between the efficiency and scale of market-based approaches to poverty alleviation and supporting entrepreneurs bringing sustainable solutions. I love that they see investing as a means, not an end, and I think they could help us break through the bureaucracy