Accra, Ghana, February 26, 2019//-Mansoor Hamayun, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)& Co-Founder ofBBOXX, a next generation utility platform which provides electricity to over 675,000 under-served people in developing countries including Africa, has revealed that BBOXX’s bold ambitions to scale rapidly into new markets are still in course.
“BBOXX is already working with Orange in West Africa, EDF in Togo and GE in the DRC, and will be partnering with a range of global telcos, major energy firms, investors, governments and technological partners in order to put our mission into action – and overcome global energy poverty”, he told African Eye Report in an interview.
Mr Hamayun added that BBOXX also plans to expand its customer product offering, saying: “Once customers have access to energy, this creates demand in lots of other areas – and BBOXX seeks to meet this demand”.
Last year in Kigali, Rwanda, BBOXX launched its vision for the off-grid home of the future, called “Tomorrow’s Rural Home.” This showcases how an off-grid home could operate in the next decade, reflecting the needs and desires of rural households in the developing world.
Tomorrow’s Rural Home includes a pay-as-you-go solar energy system, an affordable internet service, as well as LPG gas stoves and biogas. It includes all modern amenities and encapsulates everything that can be possible in an off-grid home of the future, according to him.
Future of Africa’s energy sector
Up to 600 million people still live without access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. This number shows both the scale of the challenge and the size of the opportunity.
“At BBOXX, we view electricity as the entry point to other utilities and value-added services that would never have been available or possible without the prerequisite of electricity. Energy provision creates demand in other areas – such as gas, water, internet, finance and white goods – a demand which BBOXX also seeks to meet”.
In response to this trend, BBOXX is currently expanding its products beyond the core offering of solar home systems and electric-powered appliances. BBOXX has also trialed pay-as-you-go internet, through a joint venture with Axiom Networks in Rwanda, he said.
“Our aim is to expand into other product offerings, so that off-grid customers will be able to access all forms of modern amenities, despite not being connected to a formal grid”, Mr Hamayun added.
The company’s quest of providing clean and sustainable energy to off-grid communities in the developing world was recently recognized by the Zayed Sustainability Prize, the UAE’s pioneering global award in sustainability.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
