Zimbabwe's Richest Man Ventures Into Solar Energy

Zimbabwe's richest man, Strive Masiyiwa, is venturing into solar energy, according to a report in New Zimbabwe.

Masiyiwa, 50, is the founder and executive chairman of Econet Wireless, a publicly-listed mobile telecoms company with operations in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Burundi and Rwanda.

The company's subsidiary, Econet Solar, recently launched a solar power device intended to help light up rural areas in Zimbabwe and other areas across rest of Africa which are beset by an erratic supply of electricity.

The device, called the Econet Home Power Station, will allow individuals and families across Africa to light up their homes, charge their mobile phones and generally utilize energy at a relatively inexpensive cost compared to current solar energy devices currently available in Africa. In a press statement, Masiyiwa said that the Home Power Station will allow individuals to pay for their energy on a pre-paid basis, in much the same way airtime is purchased for mobile phones in much of Africa.

While the retail price of the Home Power Station has not yet been revealed, officials of Econet Solar have promised that the device will be sold at a "small cost" to allow accessibility to low-income earners across Africa. Customers will only be charged for electricity in proportion to how they use it.

In a statement to the media, Masiyiwa said that "whilst there are already well-intentioned solar powered lighting systems on the market, the reality is that they are just too expensive for people to afford."

"We are launching the Home Power Station to change all that," he said.

The device will contain a typical Econet mobile SIM card that will enable the device to link up with the cellular network, thereby making it possible for the customer to pre-pay for energy usage, in the same way mobile phone users currently pay for airtime on their cell phone.

"It has been designed to supply, on a pre-paid basis, affordable lighting for small homes and cell phone charging," Masiyiwa said, while expressing his optimism that the product will help light up the "70 percent of Africa that does not already have access to electricity."

If Masiyiwa and the Econet Solar team play their cards right, the Home Power Station device could easily and quickly become immensely popular in various parts of the African continent, considering that several African countries, especially Nigeria, have to contend with severe electricity outages every day.

In Nigeria citizens have to depend heavily on imported generators to produce their own electricity. The droning reverberations of fuel-guzzling generating sets have become the soundtrack of urban life in the West African country. It's become an extremely burdensome, expensive and environmentally risky affair for the Nigerian citizen, but the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, has done nothing to remedy the situation.  If the Econet Solar device is as inexpensive as the manufacturers claim it will be, the Home Power Station could be a runaway success in Nigeria.