The 22year old Igniting Change with Eco-Friendly Fire Starters

At just 16, Millicent Kpekpo Elikplim was just a teenager in Opokunsiah – Koforidua, a rural community in Ghana, yet she grappled with an all-too-familiar frustration: the exhausting ritual of starting a fire for cooking. Each attempt demanded scraps of rubber and paper, filling the air with choking smoke, and consumed the time she could scarcely afford to lose. Six years later, she has transformed that frustration into an enterprise. Today at twenty-two, Millicent is the founder of an eco-conscious enterprise that transforms sawdust into clean-burning fire starters, a simple yet transformative solution reshaping domestic cooking across rural communities in Ghana.

A Young Woman’s Journey Against the Odds

Millicent began experimenting with sawdust fire starters in 2018, when she was still in senior high school. Growing up in a rural community where families depended heavily on charcoal and firewood, Millicent witnessed firsthand the exhausting daily struggles of women and children whose survival hinged on preparing meals over smoky fires.

“I was around 16 when I had the idea. It was just too hectic making fire the traditional way, I would have to run around looking for pieces of rubber or paper just to light charcoal. It was stressful, smoky, and sometimes even dangerous. We had an influx of sawdust which was not really used during that period, but I knew I could do a lot with the sawdust. At first, it was just trial and error with my uncle, who works with wood. We tried different ways to refine the sawdust until we found something that worked. By 2020, I started producing my fire starter disc which caught the attention of people in my community and they began buying from me.”  she recalls.

Millicent’s personal frustration echoes a much larger crisis in Ghana’s energy landscape. Nearly 67% of households still depend on firewood or charcoal for cooking, while just 24% use Liquified Petroleum Gas which is mostly in urban centers. For rural and peri-urban families, LPG remains prohibitively expensive and logistically difficult due to high cost of gas.

The consequences are devastating. The World Health Organization estimates 9,800 premature deaths annually in Ghana from household air pollution caused by biomass smoke. Women and children bear the heaviest burden, spending hours daily near smoky stoves, exposed to risks of pneumonia, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer.

“In my community, many families still rely on charcoal and firewood. Gas is too expensive for some, and not everyone even has access to it. So for now, charcoal is what they know. My fire starters make it easier and safer for them to use what they already have.” Millicent explains.

Waste into Wealth: The Sawdust Solution

The genius idea of Millicent is sustainable and pragmatic. She uses sawdust, a by-product of carpentry and timber processing, which is typically left to rot or burned openly, releasing harmful soot and methane into the atmosphere. Millicent collects sawdust from local timber markets, sieves it, bakes, and compresses it with a natural binder into compact fire starter discs. The result, is a product that ignites quickly, produces less smoke, minimizes fire outbreaks, and reduces the amount of charcoal needed per cooking session. Currently households are able to save 20–35% on charcoal use, a crucial difference in communities where fuel can consume up to 15% of monthly household income.

“What makes my fire starter disc unique is that it saves time and effort. You don’t need rubber or plastic anymore. It burns cleaner and reduces the smoke that pollutes our homes. And it helps control sparks that sometimes cause fire outbreaks.” Millicent says

To date, she estimates having sold hundreds of units, often to households. A pack of four discs sells for a modest fee, and one can last a household up to a month depending on usage.

Linking Local Innovation to Global Goals

Millicent’s innovation, though small-scale, touches on some of the most urgent issues in Ghana’s development agenda from deforestation and climate change to gender empowerment and youth employment. Ghana consumes an estimated 1.1 million tons of charcoal annually, driving deforestation in the savannah and forest transition zones. By reducing charcoal demand, sawdust fire starters can help relieve this pressure while giving value to waste.

Her vision also aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals; SDG 7, SDG 13, and SDG 5 which points to Affordable and Clean Energy, Climate Action and Gender Equality. Millicent’s vision is to expand her reach to empower women and provide cleaner, cheaper and safer energy alternative for rural communities.

“In the future, I want to expand production and train other young people, especially women. This can create jobs and also help our environment. We can’t just wait for government solutions; we have to use what we have locally to solve our problems.” Millicent asserts.

For now, Millicent’s business remains a grassroots effort. Production is largely manual, without access to machinery, every stage is a back-breaking work shared between Millicent and her brother-in-law, who have devised makeshift tools to press the mixture into shape.

“The hardest part is compressing. We don’t have machines, so it’s a lot of work. My dream is to get proper equipment so I can produce in larger quantities and employ more young people. She admits candidly.

As she reflects on her journey, Millicent insists her story is only beginning. She envisions herself at the forefront of a renaissance in youth-led innovation, one that taps into the overlooked wealth of local resources while fostering a deeper culture of environmental consciousness.

The Road Ahead

Sawdust fire starters represent a pragmatic, grassroots solution to the intertwined challenges of rural poverty, household air pollution, and deforestation in Ghana. Millicent’s innovation bridges an important gap by making existing biomass use cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient. Supporting such youth-led innovations with small-scale machinery, micro-loans, and market linkages could significantly amplify their social and environmental impact.