Kenya

Editor’s note: Guest blogger Linda Segre is Managing Director of Google.org. Full disclosure: Google.org is an Acumen Fund Leadership Partner.

By Linda Segre

In many ways, Wednesday, November 5 was like any other day at the office. I came into work, powered on my computer, grabbed a coffee, and sat down to start the day. As usual, a host of unread e-mails awaited me. But that’s where my day ceased to be usual and instead, became truly memorable.

Innocuously nestled in with all the other messages was a note from Samuel Onyango. I first met Samuel in 2006, while traveling in Kenya with Acumen Fund’s CEO, Jacqueline Novogratz. That day, Jacqueline and I left Nairobi for western Kenya, where one of Acumen’s investments, Advanced Bio-Extracts, operates. Advanced Bio-Extracts is a for-profit company that processes raw Artemisia annua into artemisinin, the active ingredient in Coartem - one of the world’s most effective anti-malarial drugs.

ABE doesn’t source the raw Artemisia annua from just anywhere, however - they’ve invested in farmers who grow the plant and sell their yields to ABE. One such farmer is Samuel Onyango; I had the honor of meeting him and hearing about how his lifestyle had improved once ABE began to buy his Artemisia.

In January this year, I received an e-mail from Samuel - the post-election violence in Kenya had made its way to his small farm; looters and rioters had burned his house and fields.

It’s amazing how much has changed in just a few short months. Two Wednesdays back, I heard from Samuel again. His e-mail radiated hope, and brought a tear of joy to my eyes. I won’t do Samuel the injustice of trying to summarize his e-mail; instead, I’ll copy it in its entirety below:

Dear Linda, I take this special opportunity to congratulate you and the entire population of America as you celebrate the victory of your new president. Whether you supported John McCain or Barack Obama, the victory that has been achieved is the victory for the whole of America, the victory of Kenya and a victory of the whole world. Barack Obama, being a son of a Kenyan father, has made as Kenyans proud for having produced the president of the most powerful nation in the world. To that effect, the president of Kenya, H.E. Honorable Mwai Kibaki has announced that tomorrow - Thursday - will be a public holiday so that we can celebrate the Obama victory, unlike in January when he himself was controversially declared the winner, and instead of celebrating we went to war. Your elections and Obama’s victory are big lessons for us. Linda, I am so excited by Obama’s victory. Not only because he comes from Kenya, and not only because he is black, but because Onyango Husain Obama - the grandfather to Obama - and Rebecca Abongo Obama - my own grandmother - ware a brother and a sister. I have never met Barack nor will I. But I am humbled and feel greatly honored that a man who shares some blood with me is indeed today the most powerful man in the world. May God bless you. May God bless America. May God bless Kenya and may God bless ABE. I hope and pray that he will make America and Americans greater. I am praying and hoping that he will make your life more comfortable and make you proud to be an American. Thank you so much as we celebrate, SAMUEL FROM KENYA.

Editor’s Note: This post is authored by Acumen Fund Summer Associate Amy H. Lin. Amy is pursuing an MBA and International Relations MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, respectively. Her professional interests are in international development in sub-Saharan Africa. She has worked at the World Bank, with TechnoServe and with the Boston Consulting Group. Amy graduated from Yale with a BA in Political Science.

By Amy Lin

Proving that BoP services and profit can go hand in hand, Nairobi-based Meridian Medical Centre has been profitably operating three outpatient clinics with one-third of its clients earning only $4 a day. In April 2008, Meridian opened a fourth clinic in Donholm, a low-income Nairobi neighborhood, to cater to a low-income clientele interested in high quality outpatient health care at a reasonable price.

Through a new partnership with Acumen Fund and The Blue Link Mirror Fund, Meridian will open 5 more clinics over the next 3 years in higher density, lower income areas. This expansion will begin in Nairobi, but with an eye to expanding to towns on the periphery of Nairobi. As the Kenyan newspaper The Standard reported on June 17, Meridian’s partnerships will leverage both capital and management expertise—strengthening Meridian’s bottom line while meeting BoP needs.

Meridian’s push into lower-income markets is part of a larger trend of companies recognizing the market potential of the BoP. In Kenya, prominent businesses like Equity Bank and Safaricom (a mobile phone company) have enjoyed explosive growth in recent years, largely due to their success at attracting large volumes of low income clients. Investors are also recognizing the opportunity to profitably serve the BoP, as illustrated in the oversubscription of the Safaricom IPO, which drew 236 billion Kenyan shillings ($3.68 billion).

As Meridian and others launch operations targeted at lower income populations to achieve higher growth rates, in Nairobi as well as in peri-urban or rural areas, the BoP will benefit from the greater choice of products and services. Just as he predicted, Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” is using corporate self-interest to achieve a greater public good.