Nick Moon: Development Entrepreneur in Kenya

Moon founded the company Kickstart, which conducts development aid on a free-market basis. Kickstart produces water pumps and oil presses, creating jobs in the process. The machines are sold in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mali. Farmers receive them only if they contractually agree to pay for them in the long run. And most do. Using the pumps, the farmers can plant 3 or 4 crops a year. Kickstart is financed with donations. Moon says the market could sustain another 40,000 small companies.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This pump is broken, so the whole village is without water. It's a problem familiar to Nick Moon, from the aid organisation Kickstart. The water pump was installed at great expense through western development aid, but nobody thought about repair and maintainance. There are hundreds of similar defective pumps in the Kisumu region tells us Nick Moon: "The parts are either too expensive or they're simply not obtainable. Or the person or the people who were trained in repair and maintainance have perhaps moved along and moved elsewhere. But I think that the fundamental problem, although there's a real problem, is that there is no individual ownership or proprietorship of this pump. It's a common pump in the sense that it is owned by the community, so nobody really owns it, so nobody really takes responsibility for its operation."

Nick Moon takes a different approach. The 52 year-old Briton used to distribute presents and cash donations among the poor. But he stopped doing that long ago. Now he sells aid – in the form of water pumps.

His pump is also used on this farm – it's a simple piece of equipment, tailored to meet the needs of Africa's rural population. The pump is easily attached to the well. Farmer Peter Ochieng sold a cow to pay for the pump. The investment, approximately 85 euros, has paid off. Before, he had to trek to a river a kilometre away to collect water in canisters. Now he can water his fields three times a day. He has also planted some pawpaws. The sale of pawpaws brings in money every day: "Since the pawpaw have different sizes, the highest can be 25 shillings and the least, 5. So anywhere between 5 and 25."

In this way, Peter Ochieng can increase his annual income by about a thousand euros. He also earns money by selling water to his neighbours – at less than a eurocent per 20 litres, a price that his neighbour Maria Muga can afford. Now she has clean water for her baby.

Farmer Ochieng's farming enterprise in growing – the pump provides enough water for more and more animals. He even employs a couple of villagers, because he can no longer manage the work on his own. But his pride and joy is his new house. Although he only got the pump two years ago, it has brought prosperity. He can even afford to pay for his three daughters to go to school. Now no longer poor, the family can make plans for the future: "One of the greatest is having the borehole in my compound, having another one in my compound, since that one is in the farm. And secondly, if I'd be able, then I would like to change the wall of my house into stone."

Nick Moon has already sold more than 39 thousand water pumps in Kenya. He is tireless in his efforts to advertise the Moneymaker water pumps. And he needs to be, because Kenyans are suspicious about technology and investment. Nick Moon hands out flyers and takes out adverts on radio and television. But he always makes the most sales when he demonstrates the pumps. It's the first time a man has tried one out: "Actually, we are paying for school fees – whatever – we are finished by Christmas. Maybe by February or March I buy a pump, maybe."

Many customers are like him, so Nick Moon has to stay on the ball. Kickstart spends a lot on advertising – Nick Moon is always visiting markets and talking to dealers. Nick Moon has lived in Kenya for over 20 years. His attitude is strictly businesslike and he encourages Kenyans to take an active part in the country's economic future themselves: "Well I think I can't do better than to describe myself as a social entrepreneur. Meaning that we're trying to find new and effective ways to make the market work for society as a whole, people at the bottom of society's pyramid here. So we're trying to achieve social equity and economic growth through the application of business methods."

More and more people now benefit from this idea – the farmers, the dealers and the pump manufacturers. The water pumps are made in a factory near Nairobi – at a rate of more than a thousand a month. The product has proved so successful that Nick Moon now exports to other African countries. But he is not just selling a pump – each one helps its new owner to break out of poverty.