Kenyan woman beats odds to reach BBC World Challenge final

While she is versatile in her ideas, Vava is completely single-minded when she decides to do something. Probably that explains her determination to make the world appreciate coffee's utilitarian value. The very determination that has catapulted her to the top of the world. Vava is the face behind the Vava Coffee brand which is one of the 12 finalists in this year's BBC World Challenge and the only African product in the global competition that recognises business that show enterprise and innovation at the grassroot level.

She says the idea behind Vava coffee is borne out of her passion for the “economics, politics and other social factors" surrounding the coffee industry. “It is the most traded product on the international market, but there no consistent incomes, farmers are poor,” she said.

On October 8 and 9, Vava had a rare and unique moment in the sun when the BBC world news TV programme aired a documentary on her coffee in a programme broadcast to over 300 million homes around the world. This was followed by an article in the Newsweek, one of the world's leading weekly magazine.

This unique achievement will go a notch higher on November 26 when the result of the BBC World challenge will be announced at an awards ceremony to be broadcast on BBC World News. The winner will receive a grant of US$20,000 (Sh2 million) awarded to projects/businesses for their own use and furtherance of their enterprise only. The second and third finalist will each receive a grant US$10,000 (Sh1 million).

Voting for the award is online and Vava is calling on Kenyans to vote for her. “Kenyans must come and vote for me because that is the only way I can win,” she told the Star. Her business idea was conceived barely two years ago,but she is now on the verge of greatness. All she wants is to create a brand for the international market and she believes she is on the right path, already. “We want to do our coffee in a classy, sophisticated way.”

In this process, Vava Coffee has already made a mark through branding and value addition. This is done through food pairing, different flavours and even aroma. “This is an indepth process that we want the consumers to appreciate that coffee is just like wine."

According to Vava, their brand of coffee blends are unique and distinct in their taste to ensure that each type of bean is blended in the right proportion so as to achieve the desired unique taste for each of its trade mark recipes. “The coffee is packaged in handcrafted bags through which we are supporting a group of rehabilitated youths in Kajiado county as well as a group of HIV women in the slums of Kibera,” she said, noting that Vava Coffee is also using valve package for their foil package thus guaranteeing freshness for longer.

Currently Vava Coffee is working towards providing coffee farmers and other involved in the supply chain an opportunity for sustainable livelihoods. She never studied agriculture, but her passion for coffee is amazing, remarkable and revolutionary. She attributes this success to perseverance and a “clear vision" of what she wants.

“No one has been able to export complete coffee product from Kenya because it is too expensive,” she says, while noting that is the ultimate aim of Vava Coffee. “We have already made our mark in that regard because we are proud in selling a complete product," she told the Star in an interview. “We want to make our coffee in a classy, sophisticated way. We want to develop an in-depth appreciation of coffee; we want to make it to be like wine.”

Vava is concerned with the high level of disinformation that exists among coffee farmers and consumers of the product, which is why she wastes no opportunity to provide vital lessons to those involved. “We have never fallen short of educating the public on the advantages of coffee because this gives us the opportunity to identify what is good about and educate the people on the health benefits in consuming coffee.”

As she starts her journey into the tough and tumble that is entrepreneurship, Vava agrees that all is not easy and sticking in there requires steely perseverance and determination. “Entrepreneurship in Kenya is capital intensive and the environment itself is very tough,” she regrets.