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Rwanda
ARED – African Renewable ENergy Distributor – has developed and runs a network of franchised mobile kiosks where electrical appliances can be charged thanks to an electricity generator working on solar energy.
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Maturity Level / Status Progress : Growth Year of creation : 2012 / Turnover (USD) : / Turnover (USD) in 3 years : Desired capital (USD) in 2017 : Founder : Henry Nyakarundi / / www.a-r-e-d.com |
Principle and genesis of the offer Henry Nyakarundi was born in Rwanda but emigrated to the USA during the civil war and studied at Georgia State University. He comes back to Rwanda in 2012 with the idea of creating a start-up to tackle a major issue in his country: access to electricity.In Rwanda, only 18%of the population has access to electricity while 70% owns a phone. The issue of charging all these mobile phones is then central. Nyakarundi creates a system of phone charging stations powered with solar energy or by pedalling in case of bad weather. He develops a prototype for such a station, which actually looks like a caddy to be moved easily between places where it is needed during the day, depending on people’s activity. He also equips these SKK (Smart Solar Kiosk) stations with other services such as digital information access and internet access. These stations are also equipped with a software – Shiriki – which collects and analyses data: localisation, kiosk tracking, affluence, etc. to control and improve the service. |
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