Mr George Mochu, founder of Maa Briquettes arranges some briquettes in a solar drier at his Narok plant. PHOTO | CAROLINE WAMBUI | NMG

In the vast business ecosystem, environmental, social and governance principles are crucial to any venture’s sustainability.

If long-term success is to be realised, it is just as important to consider the environmental impact as it is to look at the corporate governance aspects.

Mr George Mochu's start-up, Maa Briquettes, has been playing a crucial role in the conservation of the environment in Narok County, home of the world-famous Maasai Mara National Park, and ostensibly ensuring the survival of thousands of other businesses.

Mr Mochu’s firm makes briquette, a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material used for fuel which is used as an alternative to charcoal.

Maa Briquettes work has won Mr Mochu praises and funding from high places and big organisations in the last couple of years. But Mr Mochu did always want to go into business.

In 2012, when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from a local university, he hoped to find employment soon. But over a year down the line, he was still unemployed.

It was in the midst of his job search that Mochu got his light bulb moment.

“I watched so many donkeys carrying bags of charcoal every day and realised that many trees were being cut for fuel. Narok is a semi-arid region therefore among the most adversely affected by climate change and that meant that the already bad situation was worsening.”

The business opportunity was for Mochu to provide the residents with affordable and sustainable fuel while also protecting the environment.

“With the idea in my mind, I went online to learn about some of the best alternatives. Briquettes came highly recommended for its little carbon footprint, ” Mochu says.

In 2013, he formed Maa Briquettes.

“I sold the only valuable item I had then: a laptop for Sh20,000 to secure a manual briquettes machine that cost Sh15,000. Later, to scale up operations, I borrowed Sh150,000 from friends and family which enabled me purchase an electric-powered briquettes machine.

Mochu also took back-to-back loans for five years, starting from Sh50,000 to Sh150,000 to Sh1 million. Today, the current capital investment is Sh5 million.

For the raw materials such as maize cobs, maize stalks, waste vegetable matter and charcoal dust, Mochu has contracted suppliers across the country and pays between Sh150 and Sh300 per kilogramme depending on quality and distance to his plant.

In making the briquettes, Mochu who has six employees says that the raw materials are carbonated, sorted by sieving and put in a hammer miller where they are ground into a fine powder.

“The mixture is then taken into a machine and mixed with a binder and water to ease the process of production. Afterwards, the resultant briquettes are either dried outdoors or in a solar drier,” he says.

Once ready, the briquettes are delivered to customers by a team he has contacted or bought directly from the plant by customers.

“My main aim was to utilise other alternatives with the potential for decreasing pressure on the charcoal industry and replacing it with cleaner cheaper energy sources,” he says.

Not only are briquettes cheaper, but they also burn three times longer than charcoal and are smokeless, hence less risks to the respiratory health of the user, points out Mr Mochu.

By using briquettes, Mochu estimates about 60 trees per 500 homesteads in Narok are saved.

Along the way, Maa Briquettes has received recognition and some funding from National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND) in 2015-2016.

“Before we ventured into the briquettes business, the charcoal business was lucrative in Narok, generating billions of shillings annually. But the unsustainable charcoal production had a potential of turning the Maasai Mara into a desert within a few years as charcoal burning is a major threat, contributing to deforestation,” he explains.

The start-up deals with both households and large institutions and has its sales depending on seasons where during the cold season, during school holidays and during celebrations more sales are made.

The market for the Maa Briquettes is in the entire country and a kilogramme retails at Sh30, while a sack goes for Sh1,500.

To increase his clientele, Mr Mochu has embraced social media, using such platforms as Facebook to market his products.

But it has not been smooth sailing for the start-up. Maa Briquettes has had its fair share of challenges, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, when economic hardships have significantly reduced people’s buying power, cutting his clientele from 600 clients to 200.

The number of institutions also reduced from 25 to seven as majority of the businesses were unable to run.

Mochu hopes to open more branches all over the country to ensure ease of access to the customers.

According to Mochu, the journey has been one that requires patience from pulling carts to driving and anyone endeavoring to be in business should persevere.