This year, SEED is celebrating 20 years of promoting sustainability and eco-inclusive entrepreneurship. As part of Ghana’s in-country celebration, the team also visited a beneficiary enterprise: Gamma Energie. Gamma Energie is a 2021 SEED Award Runner-up, and one of the enterprises that showcased their products during the SEED 20th Anniversary celebration in Accra.

We can´t stress enough that over the past 20 years, we continue to witness that real change happens when dedicated business development support meets an entrepreneurial as well as an innovative spirit and vision. Gamma Energie is a perfect example for this.

The enterprise’s vision is to create and provide accessible, clean, and affordable renewable energy from agro-waste to homes and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Ghana and neighboring countries using sustainable practices - thereby contributing to improving the livelihood of consumers and protecting the environment for future generations. To fulfil this vision, the company produces high quality smokeless, odorless, and long burn-time Char-briquettes made from recycled agricultural waste such as coconut shell/husk, palm kernel shell, sugarcane bagasse, corn stalk, cocoa pod husk, as well sawdust and charcoal dust.

Growth is critical in an enterprise’s life and Gamma Energie has been getting good traction. The company is now operational in their new and bigger facility in the Eastern region of Ghana. They have procured modern machinery and convinced key investors to help them in scaling up their business.

The well-equipped plant facilitates a more sustainable production. The company has found creative ways to reduce their carbon-emission during production; for instance, by using waste from the first production stages to fuel the drying machine (used for drying the ready Char-briquettes). Since they participated in the SEED Catalyser Programme in 2021, Gamma Energie has seen an increase in sales activities and have hired two new staff.

Currently, the enterprise mainly supplies to specialised restaurants and local communities and is exploring further market segments. Their long-term vision includes entering the international export market, and the process to receive the necessary certificates for that is already in progress.

An increased product demand requires large-scale production and a core related challenge according to the Founder, Emmanuel Asaam, is the logistics and costs involved in getting more raw materials (agro-forestry biomass) to the production site. The company is embracing this challenge as well and finding solutions; they recently found a new partner in the waste sector, to explore opportunities with the aim to tackle the supply shortage — a great example of collaboration spirit in the climate smart entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Learn more about Gamma Energie and contact them here.