The Goalkeepers initiative brings together a diverse and influential community of leaders and innovators committed to achieving the UN’s SDGs. We got nominated to attend Goalkeepers 2019 by someone who thinks we are doing amazing work to push for a better world. To this day, to be honest, we are not quite sure who did nominate our organisation to this event. (If you are reading this, Thank You! )

If there is one thing that came out clearly, is the fact that we have a long way in empowering our women and girls in order to address gender equality.

If you think about life as a journey, every single disadvantage makes the journey harder. Our path forward has been relatively clear of obstacles. For a girl born in the Sahel, one of the poorest regions in the world, getting to a healthy, productive life requires overcoming hurdle after hurdle after hurdle.

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers/report/2019-report/#ExaminingInequality

We talked about our own experiences here in Kenya, providing affordable greenhouses to farmers and connecting them to markets through our Greenhouse+ service that seeks to address SDG 1: No Poverty and SDG 2: End Hunger. By connecting farmers to stable and reliable markets, we have been able to create consistent income for them paid out through MPESA or Banks every 30 days and now reduced this to 7 Days in 2020. The results have been clear to us, our farmers use this income to invest in education for their children as well as be able to afford universal healthcare at their local clinics. In other cases, especially for our middle-income farmers that build large greenhouses, they create employment to the local village workers who work as farm labourers every single day and on harvesting days, women are hired to harvest, clean, grade and pack for our team to collect and deliver to urban markets. This way, we provide clean and traceable produce to markets in Nairobi all year round. If we can move farmers to be less dependent on rainfall, farm quality inputs, access knowledge and information easily and access markets, then there will be no poverty in rural homes and hunger shall end.

This year, we are excited to take Greenhouse+ to a new high powered by data. By combining irrigation data and yield data, we believe we can create valuable information to farmers and lending institutions to use to credit score and finance farmers. Stay subscribed for our next blog on the new farm automation system we are developing here in Nairobi.

When we were approached to run with this project by some of the real estate companies, they all had one goal in mind, for us to “guarantee” a return of a minimum Ksh.900,000 per year from an 8M by 15M Greenhouse which is the standard size of the structure in the market. We first had an issue on the term and word guarantee which basically means “… a formal promise or assurance (typically in writing) that certain conditions will be fulfilled…” Secondly, on the value of the return. It was indeed ambitious and is yet to be validated by any greenhouse farmer under our umbrella that we have worked with over the past 5 years.

Why ambitious? The 8M by 15M Greenhouse takes in 400 plants with a spacing of 60cm each with a practical average yield of 15Kgs per plant over a complete season (9Months). A kilo of greenhouse tomatoes usually fluctuates across the year as it competes with the outdoor grown tomatoes dropping prices up to Ksh.20 per kilo while when the open field farmers aren’t harvesting, greenhouse farmers fetch up to Ksh.80 per kilo. However, with this concept, the farmer is assured a fixed rate of Ksh.50 per kilo giving the total returns at Ksh.300,000 as gross revenue. It is expected that expenses such as fertiliser, chemicals, agronomic support and management charges are deducted before sending the net revenue to the client with most expenses averaging Ksh.100,000 leaving a net value of Ksh.200,000.

Where then does Ksh.900,000 arise from? It is our desire and belief that farmers and investors are provided with the right information before committing their hard earned money to acquire this concept. For our partners, we have come out openly and put the facts on the table that we as a company cannot guarantee returns but instead can assure our clients that we have  the experience and expertise needed to ensure their investment gives a return sufficient to make the concept sustainable.

We shall at all times remain transparent on this matter and look forward to continually working with Kenyans in an open and honest manner to achieve both improved incomes and a food secure country.

It was a week long adventure consisting of a boot camp, an investor forum and an international conference that concludes with a crowned winner after a pitching session among startups to key entrepreneurs, investors and corporate.

Our vision is to see smallholder farmers in Sub Saharan Africa be able to access affordable modern farming technologies so as to improve their productivity and incomes. This is the sole reason why we went to represent Kenya at the Seedstars World Summit 2016 because we were able to share our vision with Seedstars who believed in us and were able to award us with the amazing opportunity.

We got to attend mentorship sessions where knowledge was shared among the mentees and entrepreneurs and ways of gearing up the start ups while dealing with emerging issues as they grew. Impressively we interacted with investors across Europe with a huge interest to invest in Africa and these are the discussions we will be taking forward to ensure we access and close as much capital as we may need before our round deadline in August 2016.

We would also like to pass our congratulatory message to Giraffe, a South African startup that emerged this year’s winner of Seedstars World. Giraffe is a mobile application that on one hand enables businesses to hire medium skilled staff faster and cheaper than any other recruitment network and that on the other hand connects job seekers to these opportunities through their cell phone. There couldn’t be any other moment than now to indeed prove that African startups are truly on the rise. All the best Giraffe.

Now it’s upon us, as Illuminum Greenhouses Kenya to implement and share the knowledge as we reach out to our people and work towards our mission to impact many small holder farmers positively. Our vision has never been more clear than it is now.

This year’s theme for the African Business Conference is “Unite.  Innovate.  Disrupt:  Homegrown models for Africa’s prosperity“. Despite the media’s focus on the challenges in Africa, we are proud of the progress Africa has made over the years and we see Africa not as a land plagued with challenges but one also filled with opportunities and remarkable success stories. We also believe that significant and sustainable progress can be achieved not only from the top but also from us, the African people.

During this year’s conference, we aim to celebrate and promote awareness of our innovative solar powered farm automation system that we hope to deploy across Africa. To quote a popular African proverb ‐ “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This suggests that we as a people can progress further, faster and better if we work together and so this year,  the conference will be focused on igniting action and channeling our collective efforts towards creating solutions that will contribute to Africa’s prosperity in the long‐term.

As in previous years,  the conference will bring together ~1,500 people,  from both the diaspora and the continent,  who are passionate about business opportunities in Africa.  The conference will feature highly inspirational content sessions, a new venture competition, and professional networking opportunities with current and future Africa business leaders.  This year,  in line with the theme,  the conference will also be introducing interactive workshop sessions,  TED‐style keynote sessions,  industry networking sessions,  personal story sessions with panelists, and more. We hope this forum shall enable more opportunities for Illuminum Greenhouses to meaningfully engage with other entrepreneurs and the conference speakers in order to foster partnerships that will lead to the deployment of more innovative solutions in Africa.

We look forward to meeting you at the Africa Business Conference 2016 to be held at the Harvard Business School.