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Building Beyond Profits: How Roofing Materials Companies Can Drive Social Impact Three weeks ago, I visited Rabuor Primary School in rural Kisumu County. The school serves 340 students from families where daily income averages less than KES 200 per person. I wasn't there to sell roofing materials. I was there because six months earlier, we'd provided cost-price roofing for their classroom block—a project that meant the difference between children learning in buildings with le

The Reference Economy: How Skysail Built a Business Where Customers Do the Marketing Last Tuesday, a man named Peter Otieno walked into our Kisumu office and asked for me specifically. "My neighbor told me I absolutely had to meet Musa before buying roofing materials," he explained. "He said you spent two hours explaining everything about his roof, that you talked him out of the cheapest option and into something better, and that his roof still looks perfect three years later

Aerial View of Abuja, Nigeria Cross-Border Expansion: Navigating Business Growth from Kenya to Nigeria Six months ago, I received an unexpected email that would challenge everything I thought I knew about business expansion. The sender was a building materials company in Lagos, Nigeria. They'd somehow discovered Skysail through LinkedIn, studied our business model, and wanted to explore a partnership to replicate our approach in Nigeria's massive construction market. My first

Building for Climate Resilience: The Future of Roofing in East Africa On March 23, 2024, Kisumu experienced what meteorologists called a "once-in-50-years" rainfall event. In just four hours, 127mm of rain fell—more than what the city typically receives in an entire week during peak rainy season. I spent that day and the following week visiting customers across the Lake Basin region, assessing how their roofs had performed during this extreme weather event. The results were s

The Fundi Factor: Why Contractor Relationships Are the Secret to Roofing Success Three months ago, I received a distress call from a homeowner in Kisii. Her new roof—installed just eight months prior with premium Gauge 28 materials—was leaking in five different spots. The roofing sheets were top quality. The timber structure was sound. The budget was adequate. So what went wrong? When I arrived to inspect the installation, the problem was immediately clear: Every single faste

"How much for the cheapest mabati you have?" This is the first question I hear from approximately 60% of customers who walk into our Kisumu or Kisii offices. And I understand why. In Kenya's construction industry, we've been conditioned to believe that the path to affordability is through the lowest initial price. But what if I told you that this approach—deeply embedded in our construction culture—is actually making housing more expensive for Kenyan families? At Skysail, we'

When business leaders and investors discuss economic growth centers in Kenya, the conversation typically gravitates toward Nairobi, Mombasa, and more recently, Nakuru. But a quieter economic revolution is unfolding in western Kenya—one that deserves national and international attention. The Lake Basin Economic Bloc (LREB), comprising 14 counties and home to approximately 15 million Kenyans, is emerging as a powerful economic engine that already contributes 25-30% of Kenya's G

Some business missions are born from market research. Others emerge from spreadsheets and opportunity analysis. But the most powerful ones often stem from personal experience. The story of Skysail Brikorne International Ltd begins not in a boardroom, but in my childhood home during Kenya's rainy seasons. When the Sky Falls In Growing up, our family home had what many Kenyans consider "sub-standard" roofing—the grass thatch our family could afford. We were far from alone; this

In Kenya's roofing industry, most companies are focused on one thing: selling you as many metal sheets as possible. At Skysail, we've taken a fundamentally different approach—one that has transformed our business and, more importantly, improved the quality of homes across the Lake Basin region. The Cost of Construction Ignorance When I founded Skysail Brikorne International Ltd, it wasn't just to sell roofing materials. It was to solve a problem I witnessed repeatedly: famili