Three African social entrepreneurs shared their innovative approach to tackling tough sanitation challenges in the developing world at a press conference held earlier this year at the National Press Club.
The entrepreneurs, David Kuria, Joseph Adelegan and Trevor Mulaudzi, have established lucrative and groundbreaking businesses related to people “doing their business.” Their business models, once considered distractions in the traditional policy or charity realm, are proving to be successful ventures. Their innovations are successfully shifting social behavior and improving public health, the environment and the economy.
Trevor Mulaudzi, a South African entrepreneur, stressed that “no one wants to use a dirty toilet no matter how poor they are.” Entrepreneur David Kuria is making the toilet a hot commodity in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Kenya. To increase demand for and maintenance of toilets in the slums, he founded a venture called Ecotact.
“Why just do two quick things in the toilet?” Kuria asks. Ecotact builds “toilet malls” that provide bathroom facilities along with shoe shines, food, phone booths and other commercial services. Each toilet complex is equipped with 8 toilets, a water kiosk, a baby changing station and gender separate showers. 30,000 customers use Ecotact’s facilities every day.
Corporations now vie for advertising, while the nearby vendors strive to keep the toilets clean. And it is the business model, not charity or education alone, that drives this success. Lately the toilet malls have been attracting unlikely champions – a popular comedian who does a stand-up sketch about toilets, the country’s beauty queen, Miss Kenya, and the nation’s Vice President himself, who recently stopped in to use the facilities and pose for photos.
In a continent where more than six out of every ten people do not have a sanitary toilet, this new service is removing the taboo around human waste, creating jobs, improving self esteem and making communities enthusiastic about hygiene.
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