90% of Uganda’s energy comes from biomass fuel. Charcoal production in Uganda runs at 0.85 million tons per year — requiring 75 million trees to be cut annually to meet demand.

That rate of deforestation is not sustainable. And the feedstocks — the agricultural waste left behind by Uganda’s farming economy, the palm kernel husks, coffee husks, rice husks — are simply being burned or discarded rather than used.

Geoffrey Okoth Yoga built Green Charcoal Uganda around a different question: what if the waste was the product?

The bizi manufactures carbonized and non-carbonized briquettes from palm kernel husks, rice husks, coffee husks, and other agricultural waste. It works directly with smallholder farmers who char their own waste using locally fabricated carbonizers, sell part of the char back to Green Charcoal Uganda, and use the rest to make their own briquettes — turning a disposal problem into an income stream.

In 2018, the company produced over 500 tons of briquettes and saved an estimated 40,000 trees.

Green Charcoal Uganda manufactures briquettes from agricultural waste — palm kernel husks, rice husks, coffee husks — as a replacement for charcoal and firewood across Uganda.

Its production model integrates smallholder farmers as upstream processors, providing carbonizers and training in exchange for the char they produce. The finished product reaches over 850,000 urban Ugandan households — plus schools, hospitals, and light industrial users — that still depend on biomass for cooking.

The demand is enormous. At current scale, the company serves less than 1% of Uganda’s biomass fuel market.