Climate Entrepreneurship Series [Part 6, final]
__Stop! Think! Act on this!

When passing through London, a friend who is an African leader asked me to have a meal with him. “What advice can you give to transform my rural areas and create millions of jobs?” he asked.

I smiled. “Mini-grids," I began. "Why not authorise entrepreneurs to build mini-grids as a business for every growth point with more than 5,000 people?"  

As I knew he him to have vision and heart to transform the lives of people in his country, I continued: "When it comes to small towns, allow them to build independent power grids (macro-grids up to 100MW). If you do that, magic will happen right before your eyes! Small businesses will erupt.”

I won’t tell you who the leader was; it’s not important. What matters is the message I shared with him and would share with anyone interested in asking me.

The fact is: mini-grids and macro-grids are coming to Africa in a big way; a mini-grid will likely power every settlement with more than 5,000 people within 10 years. How fast depends on the drive of entrepreneurs like you in each country. It will be just like the mobile telephone sector in which entrepreneurs like me pushed to replace the national telecoms companies. It will happen with power as well.

It is happening fast already in places like South Africa, Nigeria, and Zambia.  My hope is that the policy enabling environment in each country will ensure entrepreneurs can drive this more than the traditional power companies.

Once a mini-grid or macro-grid [these are the bigger ones for small towns] is installed in an area, the opportunities like those in Ravi’s compendium that I have been raving about become more possible.

What does this mean for you as an entrepreneur?

Firstly, you can consider going into the power business as you build a solar mini-grid. Then you [and other entrepreneurs] can expand from there if you see ways to reach out and meet human needs with other innovations and related businesses! Or you can begin planning now to take your town-based business to the rural areas.

Whatever stage you are in, now is the time to expand your #Knowledge and #SkillUp on this. It is HUGE! Please read up on it. Hundreds of millions of people on our continent still do not have access to power and this must change. As #Entrepreneurs... look at this image. You can be part of the solution. What do you SEE? I know what I see!

Another opportunity is the roll out of Electric Vehicles. The two go hand in hand. Within 20 years 90% of all cars in Africa will be electric!

You don’t need to be a prophet to see this is going to happen. You just have to be a smart, knowledgeable entrepreneur who knows how to watch global trends and take advantage of them.

Image credit: What can YOU build and grow with the magnificent power of the sun? https://image.nostr.build/28f9fe7dc791e191b61bb9ffb29f71414e1e26b739b106d56bd0dc25e9507db4.jpg