Frank Williams: How I made my first Sh130k per week from charcoal business

Frank Williams, a Kenyan businessman has narrated how he found success in the charcoal business after losing his job.

In a post on Facebook Group “52-week Savings Challenge Kenya’ Williams revealed being a single parent he faced many life struggles after efforts to secure another job were futile.

His friend advised him to start a business and he settled on selling charcoal, a business that took two years to break even.

According to him, he started with 10 bags of charcoal which went for a whole month and did not return him any profits.

He was patient with the business and after two years he had built a huge customer base supplying 200 bags of charcoal per week.

I quit my job to start a business, went broke, then recovered, became profitable

“On average, I make profits of KSh 650 per bag by selling the bags of charcoal at prices ranging from KSh 1,600 to KSh 1,800,” he stated.

Selling 200 bags per week gave him a weekly profit of Sh130k which translates to Sh520k per month.

The charcoal trade in Kenya is estimated to be generating Ksh26.7 billion (US$270 million) per year, according to a 2021 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-ATOC).

Nairobi is reported to be the largest generator of revenue with other towns reporting lower rates of the sale of charcoal.

“The trade is still thriving despite a total trade ban on the production and sale of Kenyan charcoal, which has been in place across the country since 2018,” the report reads.

The government has been keen on regulating charcoal production and transportation including imposition of charcoal bans in some counties to curb deforestation.

However, the fuel still finds its way to cities where demand is rising. In Nairobi for instance, many residents rely on charcoal to prepare specific foods that take long to cook.