The N’golonia Artisans: A SEWA Stove Success Story
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| Restaurant owner uses more energy efficient stove for cooking. |
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| Artisan makes energy efficient cookstove. |
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| Another stage of energy efficient cookstove production. |
EnterpriseWorks’ SEWA Stove program has made a big difference in the lives of Modibo
Traoré and Karim N’dao. They are part of a group of 20-25 metal artisans in
N’golonia established in the early 1990s. They first learned their trade from their
parents who taught them to make metal trunks and cookstoves from recycled truck wheels.
However, the Bamako market is saturated with such products and the sales were slow –
they made just 15,000-20,000 cfa ($21-$42) per month in those days.
Then, in October 1998, EnterpriseWorks came calling looking for artisans interested in making
and selling the SEWA Stove. Demand for the SEWA was exploding in response to an aggressive media
campaign and new artisans were required to keep pace with sales. The N’golonia artisans
were skeptical at first, they’d seen several stove promotion projects come and go without
much success. They were doubly skeptical when they found out that EnterpriseWorks would not buy
the stoves like other projects but the artisans would themselves have to sell directly to consumers.
However, the strong demand and publicity for the SEWA pushed them to give it a try.
EnterpriseWorks’ stove technician trained 10 artisans from N’golonia to make the metal
cladding for the stove and assemble finished stoves using liners purchased from U.C. Kadji.
EnterpriseWorks’ Stove animatrices then helped them market their stoves to the expanding
network of resellers around the city. The newly-trained artisans proved to be more proactive than
those trained previously – they used pushcarts to deliver stoves to resellers whereas the
others waited for resellers to come pick up their stove. Their efforts soon began to pay off and
their share of the market began to grow. By December 2000, they’d captured 41% of the market
for finished stoves and were netting about 28,000 cfa each per month in addition to their previous
income.
The artisans report that this additional income has vastly improved their lives. Their families are
eating better and have better clothes. Several of them have purchased motorcycles whereas before, they
could not afford bicycles. One artisan credits his purchase of a parcel of land on which he’ll
later build his home to the extra income he made from the stove. They say that the profits from the
SEWA are the key to their continuing production. “As long as there is a market, we’ll
never abandon the SEWA,” they say.
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