Want To Make Money In Africa? Start By Solving Any Of These 8 Serious Problems

#5 – Electricity


Some people say that if you look at the African continent from outer space at night, it looks empty and pitch black. Maybe this is why the rest of the world refers to Africa as the ‘dark continent’. The poor supply of electricity to support everyday needs like lighting up bulbs, pumping water and charging mobile phone batteries is a big and very serious problem in many parts of Africa. In many countries on the continent, less than 20 percent of the population have access to electricity; the situation is much worse in rural areas where fewer than 5 percent are connected to the electric power grid.

Electricity is such a serious problem for Africa that the growth and prosperity of its economy and the convenience of our daily lives depends on it. Did you know that all the 48 countries of Sub-saharan Africa (with a combined population of more than 750 million people) generate roughly the same amount of electricity as Spain (a single country of less than 50 million people)? Africa arguably has the worst electric power infrastructure in the world with the lowest scores in power generation, consumption and security of supply! (source: WorldBank).

The explosion of mobile phone use across Africa has increased the demand for electricity and escalated the seriousness of the problem. In many countries of the continent, people have to travel several kilometers to find the electricity they need to charge their phones which they depend on for communication with close family and access to business-critical information (like fertilizer or farm crop prices).

Entrepreneurs like Tanzania’s Patrick Ngowi are seizing the lucrative opportunities in Africa’s electricity problems. By focusing on solar energy, which is freely and abundantly available in Africa, Patrick has brought electricity to thousands of homes in his country. To date, his company (Helvetic Solar Contractors), has installed more than 6,000 small rooftop solar systems in his country and four other East African countries – Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. These rooftop solar products are used to light up thousands of houses at night. As a result, students can read for longer hours and do their homework while thousands of mobile phone batteries can be charged.