How to Democratize an Economy

Water is Africa’s biggest business. Benedict is disrupting it.

Meet our Majiko hero. Benedict is proud. He has work. Important work: Bringing his hometown households their clean water every day. To free up their time to go to school. To go to work. To work themselves out of poverty. This disrupts the biggest economy of Africa: Water.

Yesterday, Benedict faced an uncertain village future in Kenya.
Today, he is a paid community hero delivering clean daily water to households — as a business, not by aid.
Tomorrow, Benedict helps Majiko grow the service across Africa — to liberate hundreds of millions of women and children to work themselves out of poverty.

Every lady, gentleman and child trust him. They know he will not let anything happen to their water. Benedict is a one man operation. Delivering bottles. Returning empty ones. Cleaning them. Filling them. Sealing them. He keeps his gear in order. He needs to. Because every customer has learned to trust his Majiko color: His blue t-shirt. His blue bike. His blue trailer. His blue bottles. And his blue bottle caps and seal. If something goes wrong, the customers will notice. It is his reputation on the line.

Benedict’s customers pay for the service, not the water. They pay by subscription. Through their mPesa mobile account. Customers save up to 6 hours every day. And can now go to work. Or get an education. Benedict knows ‘Water is Freedom’. And what he sells is time.

Benedict is diligent. He cleans his bike every day and brings it home for safekeeping. He reports every delivery to the Majiko HQ. He helps out at each water source. He promotes his service to new households on his route. And find ways to bring more clean water to more people by implementing improvements.

Benedict is so happy he was pointed out by the village Chief. As one of the strong young men that would make the village proud by taking on this work. To earn a good living. And to be a hero to his community. As a Majiko hero. He helped the village chief and Majiko organization sign 95% of all households in his village to the service.

But this has been a bumpy ride. First, Norwegians were told there is no business in water in Africa. Of course, they couln’t be more wrong: It is the biggest business. Then everyone told them we Africans can’t pay. But they don’t understand how expensive it is to be poor. We have money. If it can save or bring us other income. On their first visit to design the service with us, the Majiko team from Norway was brought in for questioning at the local police station for ‘tampering with public water’ to ‘poison’ people. Allegations were dropped, but managed to scare the northerners. Then, when the one government water station was banned for Majiko by the local authorities, Majiko secured access to all government water stations in writing from the regional authorities.

Benedict now helps Majiko perfect the operation, promote the service, sign new customers, onboard new heroes and bring Majiko water freedom to every household in Kabati outside Nairobi. The Norwegians have promised to bring Majiko across Africa when the operating model is perfected here. I think they are on to something. Bikes and bottles are one-time investments. Subscriptions for such a service is a life-long relationship.

Majiko is a water delivery subscription freeing up time to work people out of poverty — as a business, not by aid. It is a Moonwalk Tomorrow company owned and developed in Norway with operations in Africa. Now seeking growth funding.