Pico hydropower, which refers to generation under 5kW, has been adopted in many places in the world as a cost effective and reliable power supply. The turbine units are important components for pico hydropower and must be portable, simple to maintain. In this study, therefore, Turgo turbine units were developed which reported to be reliable, robust and able to operate efficiently over a range of flow rates. A 2D steady-state mathematical model was developed to calculate the performance and design the optimal geometry of Turgo runner. Also, a laboratory-scale simulator was constructed to test the operating performance and experiments were carried out to determine the effect on turbine efficiency of variation in speed and jet diameter. Under the best conditions, developed Turgo turbine efficiency was observed to be over 90% at a speed of 900rpm.