Alliance Magazine Features Suraj Wahab of Toyola Energy
“The winners of the 2011 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy were announced at a ceremony in London on 16 June. Among the five international award winners was Toyola Energy, which was set up in 2006 to make and distribute fuel-efficient cookstoves to low-income families in Ghana. Founder and CEO Suraj Wahab spoke to Caroline Hartnell about overcoming initial funding difficulties, the progress he has made so far, and what he would like the future to hold for his company.”
Toyola Energy was set up by accountant Suraj Wahab Olugburo and engineer Ernest Kwasi Kyei to replace the polluting, inefficient cookstoves that are widely used in rural Ghana with cleaner, more fuel-efficient versions. The company gained a start-up loan from E+Co in 2006, which allowed it not only to produce more stoves but also to provide credit to its customers, most of whom could not afford the stoves otherwise. The company now has a turnover of around US$550,000 per year; by March 2011 it had made and sold 154,000 stoves. As well as environmental and health benefits, the company creates social benefits in terms of training and employment for rural people − the cookstoves are now made by about 172 artisans and sold by more than 300 people. In June 2011 Toyola Energy won the Ashden Gold Award.”