- The brothers wanted an eco-friendly venture which would also leave a legacy.
- The pencils are made in a six-stage procedure.
Kenya sells about 300,000 newspapers daily, which contributes to its paper waste that is not properly recycled.
Pencils are a very important part of a child’s life, but they also find usage with carpenters, artists, architects, and other places.
According to available data, Kenya imports more than 150 million wooden pencils every year to meet its demand.
According to a report by the United Nations, about eight million trees are cut down annually to make pencils, contributing to deforestation, a catalyst for climate change.
What if there were a solution to reduce the number of trees cut down to produce pencils?
How it started
The year 2017 flashed a new dawn for Mahamud Omari and Fadhil Mohamed, the two Kenyans who came up with the idea of making pencils using recycled newspapers.
At the time, the two were looking to start a business that would not only provide for their family but also leave a legacy that their children would carry on, something that would impact the community, bring about positive change, and create employment.
Manufacturing seemed to be the right path, and that is how they stumbled upon the possibility of turning newspapers into pencils.
Omari and Mohamed reduce, re-use and recycle old newspapers into beautiful, fun, and high-quality pencils.
Although it had not been done in Kenya, it had been done in other developed countries like China.
Through research, they figured out what was needed to start a pencil-making company using old newspapers.
It took them three years of testing and failing to get the right product, MoMo Pencils, which has grown to Mo&Mo Group, under the leadership of Mahamud Omari, the CEO.
Currently, the company can recycle about 200 kilograms of newspapers in a month and produce up to 40,000 pencils in a day and about 300,000 to 1 million pencils in a month during peak seasons.
Most of these newspapers are bought from vendors, but some are donated by well-wishers who understand and support the need for better waste management in Kenya.
The making process
To get the final product, the newspaper is taken through six steps: The first step is to cut the newspaper into sizes.
“By trying and failing many times, we finally got the right size and thickness that is approved by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).
Different newspapers have different thicknesses, but on average, one newspaper sheet produces three pencils, and one kilogram of newspapers produces about 200 pencils,” said Omari.
The second step is to insert the graphite and glue it onto the newspaper, which is done manually.
The third step is to roll the newspaper and the graphite to form the shape of a pencil. This is done by a rolling machine which the company had to import because it is not locally available.
After rolling, the newspapers are not hard enough to pass as pencils; hence the next step is to dry them to harden them like wooden pencils.
They are dried in the sun for three days during the sunny seasons, but on rainy days, the drying process is done in an oven, which is the fourth step.
At this point, the pencils are hard and feel like wood; unless you are keen, you will not differentiate it from a wooden pencil.
The fifth step is to polish the pencils using sandpaper to smoothen them for customization.
The sixth step is customizing the pencils.
Momo Pencils prides itself on creativity when it comes to customizing pencils for personal use and company branding.
The pencils range from inspirational pencils for children, cultural pencils representing different cultures in Africa, and different campaigns and colors that represent normal pencils.
The final step is the packaging. Some pencils are packed in dozens, while others are in small numbers and then shipped to different selling points.
The company has 25 staff members to carry out the production when they have large orders, but in a regular setting, the production is done by ten staff members.
Hope for Literacy Campaign
Statistics in Kenya have shown that approximately 16 million children in Kenya, accounting for 67 percent of Kenya’s child population, have been raised in poverty, exacerbated by climate change.
This means that millions of them lack basic schooling materials such as pencils.
With this in mind, Momo Pencils started the Hope for Literacy campaign, donating some of its profits to schools in Kenya.
Through the program, Momo Pencils have visited different schools, donated pencils, and planted trees.
Over the years, they have reached about 145,000 school-children and planted about 10,000 trees in counties like Machakos, Kitui, and Nairobi.
Hope for Literacy plants fruit trees that will provide shade and fruits to the kids to ensure that most of the trees survive.
They also choose some pupils to be responsible for the trees.
After six months, representatives go back to check on the children and the trees. About 60% of the trees survive, while the others die because most of the areas are semi-arid.
Why the campaign?
The campaign also aims to show children that they can be innovative and achieve their dreams. Just because something has not been done before doesn’t mean it cannot be done.
It also leads to opening their minds and looking for better solutions regarding environmental concerns.
They learn how to recycle and re-use available materials: trees were cut to make newspapers and pencils, recycle newspapers to make pencils, plant more trees and reduce the making of wooden pencils.
“Through our pencils, we can give hope to school children and make them advocates of the environment through the experience of planting trees.
We also teach them to think outside the box and find solutions for problems in the community without waiting for external help. An example is through turning old newspapers into pencils,” Mohamed explains.
Challenges faced
Venturing into this business for the first time posed many challenges to them.
“We learned the hard way; when we started, we had issues with the function ability of the pencils. They could not sharpen, they were not hard enough and they were not durable,” says Omari.
This meant they could not be approved by KEBS, which requires pencils to be of a certain length and thickness and have a certain standard of darkness.
Because pencils are mostly for children, they are not supposed to be toxic as kids eat them often.
Omari adds that since they were doing something that had not been done in Africa before, they were learning during the initial production stages; mistakes were made, and they learned from them.
They started by making about 5-10 pencils a day, while an average good production capacity should be about 20,000 pencils a day.
“The biggest challenge was getting into the market,” Mahamud said.
“Market entry has challenges not only for our product but for any new product. There is so much comparison between a Kenyan brand and other brands.
Also, many sellers do not understand the concept of eco-friendly; hence the concern on why our product is more expensive than other pencils came up a lot,” Mohamed explains.
This helped them to be able to create a niche for themselves and target a market that understands what they stand for instead of trying to fight market wars.
Another challenge they faced was the lack of a production warehouse.
Production was put on hold for about six months for the lack of an affordable large warehouse in Nairobi and its outskirts.
Omari and Mohamed ended up buying land in Athi River, Nairobi, Kenya, and built a warehouse. This worked out perfectly, as the hot sun in Athi River is good for drying out the pencils.
Future goals
Momo Pencils’ long-term goal is to be a brand known to bring change not only in Kenya but throughout Africa— Pencils for Africa.
By visiting schools in different countries, donating pencils and planting trees, and with the help of different partners, they aim to visit 1milllion schools and plant a million trees by the end of the year 2023.
“I encourage more Kenyans to be entrepreneurs. Everyone has an idea, but those who make a difference are those who take their ideas and convert them into something achievable.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: How man turns plastics into toys to conserve environment
This is the best time to be who you want to be; there are opportunities everywhere, do not limit yourself. The world will reward you when you do something to support the community,” Omari urges.
