Rwanda: Phone Charging Made Simple

Monday, December 15, 2014

RWANDA’s Henri Nyakarundi founded African Renewable Energy Distributor (ARED) to give renewable energy solutions to the public and private sectors in his home country Rwanda after failing to find a place to charge his phone from. However, he never imagined that his idea would ever cross the border.

Now with great success in Rwanda and Burundi, he is aiming at launching a similar project in Kenya and across the East African region. His Mobile Charging Kiosk dubbed SharjaVuba is set to help thousands who are not connected to grip electricity with alternative energy from solar power and photovoltaic technology.

The business:

Nyakarundi is implementing a franchise business model, where business minded individuals will pay ARED Rwf 245,000 or Rwf 350,000 to purchase a kiosk, plus a monthly charge of $45 to service and support the device.

The lower-end cost would supply an individual with a kiosk, powered by solar energy to charge up to 20 phones at a time, while the Rwf 350,000 package allows one to operate a “smarter” kiosk which can also sell mobile phones, airtime and electricity.

Source: allAfrica (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Energy, Technology
Tags
renewable energy, social enterprise, solar