Less known Chebet Lesan, kenyan entrepreneur won the hearts of many after she emerged the winner of this year’s Jack Ma Foundation-led Africa Business Heroes awards.
The award, which turned two years old on Africa, was established to identify and recognise the continent’s top entrepreneurs.
Facts about Lesan
- Lesan is the founder of Bright Green Renewable Energy
- Bright Green Renewable Energy is a social enterprise that turns urban waste into clean burning charcoal for households, schools, farmers, hospitals and many others.
- Lesan will receive Ksh.33 Million so as to promote her quest of providing access to clean cooking fuel across Africa
- She will also become a beneficiary of Jack Ma’s Foundation mentorship program, besides the lucrative award
- Chebet Lesan was born 27 years ago in 1993.
- She was inspired to start Bright Green Renewable Energy when she visited Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, she observed at the foot of the mountain , how forests were being depleted due to charcoal business
- What they do, is basically collecting waste from shambas and markets, which they then burn through a process called carbonization. This then turns into a material called char, which is a black powder with the same properties as charcoal. We then compress this powder into blocks to form charcoal.They package in 50Kg bags which go for Sh.1,500
- The project opened opportunities for Chebet, among them an induction into the Mandela Washington Fellowship and earning a recognition from Queen Elizabeth II with a Queen’s Young Leaders Award
- Chebet urges women to shun away from employment and focus on creating their own source of employment as entrepreneurs
- From her social media, she has traveled far and wide across the globe, brushing shoulders with the mighty including Queen Elizabeth II
