The Overlooked Productivity Revolution Happening in East Africa’s Kitchens

By Shveta Sarin, Business Development Director: Micro-entrepreneur, Shell Foundation

When people talk about clean cooking, the conversation often focuses on households. The benefits are familiar: cleaner air, improved health, reduced emissions, and time saved collecting fuel.

But across East Africa, another story is unfolding in kitchens that are also businesses.

From roadside food stalls and market kiosks to small restaurants and cafés, thousands of women entrepreneurs spend their days cooking for customers. For these business owners, cooking is not simply a household task. It is their livelihood. Every minute saved, every extra meal served, and every customer retained can make a meaningful difference to income and growth.

New research from the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) Programme, conducted as part of a Shell Foundation-supported Results-Based Financing programme funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), highlights the transformative potential of electric cooking technologies for women-led enterprises in Kenya and Tanzania.

The findings challenge some common assumptions about why businesses adopt cleaner technologies. The strongest driver was not climate concerns or even fuel savings. It was productivity.

More than 80 per cent of surveyed businesses identified time savings as the primary reason for purchasing induction cookstoves. Faster cooking, automated temperature control, and the elimination of time spent lighting and managing charcoal fires all helped entrepreneurs serve customers more quickly and spend less time on low-value tasks.

In a business environment, time savings matter because they create opportunities to generate more revenue.

One business owner in Kenya captured this reality simply:

That experience was reflected across the study. More than 73 per cent of businesses in Kenya reported increased sales after adopting induction cooking, with the vast majority attributing those gains to faster cooking speeds. Reduced waiting times meant customers were less likely to walk away. Faster preparation enabled businesses to serve more people during peak periods. Productivity translated directly into commercial performance.

This insight is important because it reframes how modern energy technologies should be viewed. Too often, clean cooking interventions are assessed primarily through environmental or health outcomes. While those benefits are significant, businesses make investment decisions based on whether a technology helps them operate more effectively and earn more income.

The study found that fuel savings also played an important role. Businesses reported average monthly savings of approximately $20 in Kenya and $29 in Tanzania after accounting for electricity costs. At market prices, the induction cookstoves could effectively pay for themselves through fuel savings within five to nine months.

Yet fuel savings alone do not tell the full story. For many enterprises, the real value lies in the combination of lower operating costs and increased throughput. The technology helps businesses become more efficient while simultaneously enabling growth.

The research also offers valuable lessons about how innovation reaches underserved entrepreneurs.

Technology alone is rarely enough. Successful adoption depended heavily on the surrounding delivery model. All participating businesses acquired their cookstoves through Pay-As-You-Go financing, helping overcome affordability barriers. More than 90 per cent received in-person training, while sales agents played a critical role in introducing and demonstrating the technology.

These findings reinforce a broader lesson seen across many sectors: distribution, financing, and customer support are often as important as the product itself.

Another important insight concerns how businesses actually use new technologies. Adoption did not lead to the immediate abandonment of traditional fuels. Instead, entrepreneurs integrated induction cookstoves into existing cooking systems, using different fuels and appliances for different tasks.

This “fuel stacking” reflects practical business decision-making rather than resistance to change. Entrepreneurs adopt technologies where they offer a clear competitive advantage and continue using other fuels where they remain better suited to particular cooking processes. Successful transitions are therefore likely to be gradual rather than absolute.

Beyond the business case, the study also highlights significant social and environmental benefits.

The programme primarily reached women-led enterprises, many of which are informal businesses run and staffed entirely by women. Participants reported cleaner working environments, reduced smoke exposure, lower heat levels, and improved overall working conditions. More than 90 per cent of respondents in Kenya and 84 per cent in Tanzania said the induction stoves had a significant positive impact on smoke, cleanliness, and workplace comfort.

The climate benefits are equally compelling. Emissions reductions were estimated at between 1.1 and 1.7 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per stove each year, demonstrating how productivity gains and climate outcomes can reinforce one another.

The study also highlights where further innovation is needed. Many business owners cited limited cookware capacity as the biggest constraint to wider adoption. Commercial kitchens require solutions that deliver not only speed but also scale. Designing larger-capacity appliances and cookware better suited to business needs could unlock even greater productivity gains.

Taken together, these findings point to a larger opportunity that remains largely overlooked by investors, policymakers, and development organisations.

For millions of entrepreneurs across Africa, access to modern cooking technologies is not simply a household energy issue. It is a business growth opportunity. It is a pathway to higher incomes, stronger women-led enterprises, healthier working conditions, and lower emissions.

Commercial cooking should be recognised as a productive use of energy.

The lesson is clear. When modern energy technologies help small businesses become more productive, the benefits extend far beyond the kitchen. They create opportunities for entrepreneurs to grow, employ others, and strengthen local economies. The next chapter of clean cooking may therefore be less about changing how people cook at home, and more about helping businesses cook better, faster, and more profitably.