Surplus Gas Nigeria Limited

We need the elevate prize funding to procure the major equipments needed to take off such as a 10metric tonnes gas skid, 2 solar powered tricycles and 50 units of gas cylinders of various sizes. Others are working capital like procurement of initial stock of 10 metric tonnes of cooking gas (LPG), and labour costs for two months, as well as contingency funds, etc.

11 years ago, I lost my beloved step mother to a kidney disease caused by smoke. She neither smoked cigarette nor lived close to anyone who did but died from the smokes she inhaled while cooking with firewood. According to W.H.O, same is  the fate of over 500,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa annually because any one who cooks 3square meal with firewood has smoked between 3 and 20 packets of cigarettes according to the same research. However, about 75% of homes in sub-Saharan Africa still depends on firewood for cooking. But I and my team has sworn to avenge her death by ensuring that the life of other African women are saved. Nigeria has 203.16 thousand cubic feet of gas reserve which is the highest in Africa, but our findings showed that the major reasons why people cook with firewood in sub-Saharan Africa are lack of access to clean energy and poverty. To solve this problem, Surplus Gas is leveraging technology by using thrift contribution system through a simple mobile app for ordering and payment, and solar powered tricycles to deliver affordable Liquefied petroleum gas to homes and businesses in rural and sub-urban parts of sub-saharan Africa.

My organization Surplus Gas is a social enterprise based in Nigeria, we are basically leveraging modern technologies for effective distribution of Liquefied petroleum gas at affordable prices to the rural parts of Sub-saharan Africa to reduce the death of hundreds of thousands of women who die annually from smokes inhaled while cooking with firewood.

Due to the fact that most rural dwellers in Sub-saharan Africa are low income earners and as such can hardly afford cooking gas, we are developing a mobile application integrated with a mobile wallet and a USSD payment platform  that will enable users contribute 100Naira (23cents) or more daily into their gas wallets as well as enable them to place orders once they run out of cooking gas while we use solar-powered tricycles for an almost costless delivery in minutes immediately an order is placed, this makes our gas very affordable for all.

From our daily thrift contribution method through an online gas wallet, which makes it possible for everyone in sub-Saharan Africa to afford next supply of LPG irrespective of income level, our mobile app for ordering and payment that makes the process easy for all, to our cheap home delivery services using solar-powered tricycles thereby creating inclusiveness for both rural and sub-urban dwellers in Africa to access LPG, our approach proves to be unique and innovative. It is specially designed to save lives, productive time as well as the environment.
The impact of this project will certainly be immeasurable as our approach has been deigned to remove every hurdle identified by all researches so far on the reasons why people still use dirty fuel to cook in sub-Saharan Africa ranging from low income to lack of access to clean energy.
Therefore, we hope to reduce by 65% the practice of cooking with dirty fuel in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 in order to preserve both lives and the ecosystem.

About 75% of the homes in sub-Saharan Africa still relies on dirty fuel for cooking and this is responsible for about 1.6million deaths per year globally according to the institute of Health Metrics and evaluation. Our study proves that most of the population involved in this are rural dwellers who are mostly low income earners and as a result can not afford clean energy except a special programme is designed for them. Hence, Surplus Gas has designed a business model that will make the use of liquified petroleum gas affordable and appealing to low income households and small scale businesses in sub-urban and rural parts of sub-Saharan Africa by integrating a daily thrift contribution system, mobile app for ordering and payment and a solar-powered tricycle for low-cost delivery to homes and businesses.

We plan to partner with Pay Go Energy Kenya in the nearest future to introduce pay-as-you-go-services with their smart meters to further depen LPG use in Africa. Our approach is very innovative with a mission to eradicate the practice of cooking with dirty fuel in Africa by 2050. From saving of lives to a cleaner ecosystem the positive impacts of our innovation is unquantifiable.