In South Africa, there’s been a spike in the solar electricity franchise, but there is a Nigerian franchisor, Tonye Irims who is working on making solar electricity cheaper and more available to South African residents.
Research by Bloomberg NEF revealed that “wind and solar energy are now the least expensive forms of power in two-thirds of the world”. The world is beginning to embrace solar energy as the next environmentally friendly way to generate energy for domestic and industrial use.
Tonye has always been passionate about affordable and quality electricity. It is the primary reason he left Nigeria 26 years ago. He is currently working on enhancing the prospect of solar electricity, and expanding his solar electricity franchise, WiSolar to other African countries.
In 2011, Tonye failed at an attempt to launch FriendsChip, a payment app in the United States of America, and he had to return to South Africa.
He started WiSolar in the South African winter of 2016 by putting together solar electricity in his house after many experiences of being cut off the electricity grid with hefty reconnection fees. In November of 2016, WiSolar started operations
Like many startups, WiSolar has faced and is still facing a few business challenges. Tonye and his team were thrown out of their first store in 2017 due to unpaid back rent. They were only able to do 3 installations in their first year of business and were kicked out of their office because they couldn’t afford to keep up with the rent.
The dark days continued to the extent that in the same 2017, Tonye wanted to sell the store branch for as low as R120,000 (USD 8,000) but couldn’t get any willing buyer.
Despite the many challenges Tonye faced in scaling WiSolar, he decided to give it another shot with R60,000 seed capital he got in 2018. Things didn’t take off until February 2019. WiSolar got its first paying client in February 2019, and ever since then, the company has been growing financially, and in manpower.
WiSolar is currently looking to add over 100 work-from-home jobs in 2021. It will help boost the labor market in South Africa after the adverse effect of Covid-19.
As a growing company, WiSolar is faced with a few challenges. Providing electricity at a cheaper rate isn’t cheap, and it will take adequate funding to keep the business going. Another problem is getting the right people on the team. The vision of creating 100 work-from-home jobs next year will see to it that the right people will be employed to fill the vacant positions.
WiSolar is on a mission to roll out prepaid electricity for variable loads for as low as R0.78c per Kwh. This is in line with their vision to provide affordable solar electricity to every household in South Africa and Nigeria.
WiSolar recently received two awards in the 2020 MEA Business Awards for Client Service Excellence, and The Most Innovative Clean Energy Company – Africa. The recognitions are pouring in, and in the nearest future, they’ll be competing with international companies in the solar electricity industry.
Tonye disclosed that he’s very keen on breaking into the Nigerian solar electricity market. The plan is to make solar electricity cheap and available for Nigerians for as low as N20 per Kwh, which is cheaper than what the average Nigerian spends on electricity per hour.
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