Journey to Scale

This programme aims to increase the affordability of solar cookstoves in refugee settings and peri-urban Uganda, through links to carbon credits and pay as you go schemes. It will also establish Ecoca East Africa SMC Ltd (EEA), the first e-cooking business of East Africa, support a retailer network, map the value chain and adapt the model for humanitarian settings. Mercy Corps' role is providing technical advice to Pesitho's experts. Pesitho’s vision is to provide affordable and accessible renewable electric cooking to a range of people - from those living in refugee settlements to those in peri-urban and urban settings - enabling a clean transition from traditional to modern cooking. Through Journey to Scale project we hope to transition from a grant-based business model (selling to NGOs) to a sustainable market-based model, through the introduction of a carbon credit scheme that will significantly lower end user prices so as we are able to sell directly to those who utilise our product, the Ecoca. The Ecoca completely eliminates the need for biomass and satisfies the cooking and lighting needs of a typical rural off-grid household. Starting in Bidibidi refugee settlement, over the two years we hope to refine and test some core elements of the new business model to allow us to scale in an accessible and sustainable manner to reach 6,000 households in Uganda and Kenya by the end of the program.