Zambia’s clean-energy focused enterprise WidEnergy Africa Limited has received an investment from GreenTec Capital Partners.
GreenTec, an investor in African businesses had announced the investment through a press release yesterday.
WIDEnergy is an all female-led and women-oriented company based in Lusaka focused on the delivery of clean energy solutions.
Zambia-registered WidEnergy is a for-profit social enterprise also dedicated to women’s empowerment and leverages on the innovative PAYGO model to provide solar-powered homes and appliances.
The amount invested by GreenTec is yet to be disclosed and the latest investment marks the seventh venture capital injected into the company.
WidEnergy Ltd aims to increase access to inexpensive energy through the innovative application of the PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) model, which has a low penetration rate in Southern Africa, providing a significant market opportunity, a statement said. It works with 80 women sales agents to deliver renewable energy solutions and connectivity across the South-Central African country.
The firm hopes to usher in a world where every African woman, girl, has access to clean cheap and sustainable energy for lighting and cooking, can take advantage of energy access to live better, with a positive impact on health, education and household income.
WID is an acronym for “Women in Development,” mirroring the company’s objectives to engage women as active participants in Africa’s energy transition. WidEnergy has developed partnerships to be the Zambian distributor for d.light, Greenlight Planet, and Little Sun solar appliances and home systems.
WIDEnergy Ltd hopes to connect more than 1250 households by July 2019 and is actively working on its approach and model and has recently completed the integration of MTN backed mobile-money payments into its platform, greatly facilitating user payments.
Aside from making clean energy accessible, the firm seeks to provide door-to-door sales training to women and girls, to increase women’s personal income and prevent eventual commercial sex or early marriage, all which usually result from poverty.
