{"id":14101,"date":"2014-08-25T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=14101"},"modified":"2015-12-21T11:10:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T18:10:32","slug":"africa-series-jibu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-jibu\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hyper-Local Model for a Global Water Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the last post of\u00a0a 14-part series<\/a> on entrepreneurship in Africa and the companies who participated in the inaugural Unreasonable East Africa<\/a> program.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Randy Welsch, a retired software executive, <\/strong>was advising\u00a0for several charity-backed\u00a0water projects in Africa when he became consumed by the belief that he could do better. While clean-water access is a\u00a0pressing issue\u20143.4 million people die every year from water-borne illnesses\u2014nearly half of all donor-backed projects like those he was working on fail within three years.<\/p>\n

Welsch felt this was primarily due to lack of local ownership (research backs him up on this<\/a>).\u00a0After consulting with his son, Galen\u2014a former Peace Corps volunteer\u2014the idea of locally owned and driven business was solidified, and they set about to change things.<\/p>\n

We’re financing businesses with a razor-sharp focus and expertise in water purification.<\/i> Tweet This Quote<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So Randy and Galen Welsch and his son founded Jibu<\/a>, a water project based on a hyper-local franchise model that ensures key decisions are made on a community-by-community basis, by the people who live in them, rather than from a central office or by teams of foreign volunteers.<\/p>\n

Jibu franchises\u00a0water stations that sell refillable jugs of purified water. The company operates on a turnkey model, licensing\u00a0franchisees at a $1,000 co-investment, which provides them with a startup package that includes water-purification equipment, refillable bottles, packaging, point-of-sale systems, branding, and business training. Once a Jibu shop is up and running, customers purchase refillable containers of water for around five cents per liter. They return the empty jugs, which the Jibu station refills to be sold again\u2014basically the same model used for the propane tanks that fuel American barbecue grills.<\/p>\n

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