1 July 2021: We are announcing a new grant awarded by KawiSafi Ventures Limited through the KawiSafi Technical Assistance Facility, to ensure energy access to the customers in Kenya and Rwanda who have been the most negatively impacted by the pandemic.
At Bboxx, we have a strong history of positively impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in East Africa with access to clean, reliable and affordable energy. We manufacture, distribute and finance decentralised solar powered systems across the region – and we have been leveraging our innovative Internet of Things technology to commercially scale access to vital utilities and power sustainable economic development.
The grant is a uniquely customer-facing support mechanism that will go towards Bboxx customers impacted by Covid-19, specifically in Rwanda and Kenya. Bold and smart financing like this enables us to help thousands of customers who have been most affected by Covid-19. It will give customers up to three months of free energy access and after-sales service to maintain their solar home systems (SHS), taking off the financial pressure while ensuring they can still access vital energy.
It acts as a continuation of the ‘crisis energy’ schemes Bboxx introduced last year in some of our markets, where we provided bonus days of energy for free for customers who paid upfront. While demand for energy – an essential need – has remained robust throughout the pandemic, innovations like these are important to safeguard customer segments who may have been adversely impacted.
Since the pandemic hit last March, causing economic uncertainty for many across the globe, the off-grid energy sector has remained resilient and will play a significant role in the post-pandemic green economic recovery.
It is encouraging to see the sector increasingly recognise the urgent need to take action on tackling energy poverty. We urge more partnerships like these to ensure we can continue to accelerate access to energy and advance UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 – energy for all.
Reaching SDG 7 is essential to empower people, businesses, communities and whole countries to unlock their potential. Access to energy is the trigger for economic growth as it powers sustainable development by providing opportunities not previously possible.
To ensure we can collectively continue to make progress towards this goal and positively impact more lives, we need greater funding from the private sector as well as partnerships with governments to deliver financial support to those living in energy poverty. Only then will we be able to truly unleash the opportunities provided by clean, reliable and affordable electricity.
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About Bboxx: Bboxx is a next generation utility, transforming lives and unlocking potential through access to energy. Bboxx manufactures, distributes and finances decentralised solar powered systems in developing countries. It is scaling through forging strategic partnerships and its innovative technology Bboxx Pulse®, a comprehensive management platform using IoT technology. Through affordable, reliable, and clean utility provision, Bboxx is bringing people into the digital economy, creating new markets, and enabling economic development in off-grid communities and those living without a reliable grid connection. The company is positively impacting the lives of more than one million people with its products and services in over 35 markets, directly contributing to 11 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
So far, Bboxx has deployed more than 350,000 solar home systems. Bboxx has over 800 staff across nine offices including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, and Togo, with its head office in the UK and its manufacturing operations in China. In 2019, Bboxx was the winner of the Zayed Sustainability Prize in the Energy category – testament to the way the company is making a meaningful difference to people’s lives around the world. For more information, visit: https://www.bboxx.com/.
About KawiSafi Ventures Limited: KawiSafi is an East Africa focused fund and invests in companies that provide and enable access to clean energy products and services to low-income and off-grid populations. KawiSafi invests growth capital in proven business models that address key market gaps and aims to deliver ambitious impact objectives and market-competitive returns.
About KawiSafi Ventures Limited: The KawiSafi Ventures Technical Assistance Facility (KSV TAF) is a 5-year program officially launched in April 2020. The KSV TAF has been seeded with US$ 5 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF)and aims to address targeted market failures or externalities in the off-grid energy ecosystem. It is designed to provide both firm-level and sector-level support that falls outside the typical investment activities but which if implemented, would support positive impacts for communities in East Africa. Such support includes consumer protection, promoting gender inclusion and knowledge creation.
