March 2020 – Danone communities

Nigeria

Inhabitants: 201 million
Annual income per capita: 5 700 USD
Only 19% of Nigeria’s population has access to safe drinking water (source)

Impact Water provides safe drinking water solutions by delivering, installing and maintaining water treatment systems at ultra-affordable prices to schools across Africa. They designed a cheap, user-friendly water treatment device, which is sold directly to schools. Impact Water works with more than 20 000 schools in Nigeria, where children can re-fill their bottles with safe drinking water all day long. Impact Water is also present in Uganda and Kenya.

Around the world schools are looking for safe water solutions but often need assistance to obtain them. Cost, availability and ability to maintain are all major obstacles. By leveraging blended finance and partnering with impact investors that value health, education and environmental benefits, Impact Water is able to provide sponsored systems (free or close to it) to the most disadvantaged schools (the majority of the developing-country school market) while also selling to those that can afford to purchase.

Strong partnerships with the Nigerian Government (Federal and State-level) are essential, as is a long-term commitment to each school.

20 634

schools with safe water systems (2021)

8,6 million

of kids with access to water in schools (end of 2021)

Adaeze

Teacher, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria

“Teaching was always my passion, even as a young girl I was tutoring my younger siblings and neighbours’ kids. Before Impact Water was available in my school, boiling was the only tool we had to provide drinking water for my students. The school struggled with the cost of firewood as well as the hours lost to the chore of boiling water. I was searching for sustainable solutions until I met Zacch, CEO of Impact Water Nigeria, who offered a water treatment system my school could afford.

I would recommend to all of the schools to install the Impact Water system. Before our students had a lot of problems with stomach pain, diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases. Now with Impact Water we have safe drinking water always available in the school. Kids can take water whenever they are thirsty and they do not miss class due to waterborne disease anymore.”

East Africa

Inhabitants: 434 million
Annual income per capita: 2 406 USD
Only one in four people in Africa has access to a safe source of drinking water (ONU)

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In 2010, Randy Welsch, an American investor and businessman and his son Galen, a former Peace Corps member, founded Jibu to create meaningful economic opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as affordable access to safe water for people. This is how they came with the idea of developing a network of franchisees selling Jibu water.

Jibu (Swahili word for “solution”) started to open the first water kioks in Rwanda and Uganda at the same time with the vision to prove the replicability of the model. Today Jibu operates in 8 countries, expanding its franchise model in East Africa, and launched 154 franchises.

190

kiosks in the 5 East Africa countries

1496

jobs created

101,888 million

liters sold (2021)

Ivan

Jibu Entrepreneur, Kampala, Uganda

“I was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda. I’ve always been involved in my local community and am very well aware of the challenges of unemployment and lack of access to safe drinking water.

I am an old friend of Randy Welsch, co-founder of Jibu, and when one bright afternoon Randy explained his idea of water kiosks to me, I was very excited to become part of this great story. Jibu gave me everything I needed to start a successful business – start-up capital, state of the art technology, and expert business advice.

Becoming a Jibu franchisee brought me regular income to support my family and brought to the neighbourhood affordable safe drinking water just steps from their home. As the business is growing I needed a helping hand. This was a great opportunity to generate jobs for people in my community and to bring positive change.”