The British company Bboxx, which supplies solar home kits, recently innovated in Rwanda. It launches “E-Pay”, an online payment service. The aim is to facilitate the payment of solar kits. The service is intended for Rwandans living in cities and who have families in remote areas. “E-Pay” will mainly help Rwandans in the diaspora to pay directly for the purchase of solar kits for their parents in Rwanda, at no extra cost.
“We know (…) that one in two rural families receives money from a resident of a large city or abroad. This innovation aims to connect sponsors to beneficiaries while removing part of the channel’s costs,” explains Justus Mucyo, Managing Director of BBOXX Rwanda. The “E-Pay” service is available on the website of the start-up company in Rwanda.
For people living in villages, Bboxx has set up the “pay-as-you-go” (pay-per-use) service, which works with “mobile money”, a service provided by telephone operators. These innovations have enabled the company to gain a significant market share in rural Rwanda and other African countries.
Bboxx wants to set up its mini-networks in all the villages of Rwanda. To do this, the company obtained an $8 million loan from the Facility for Energy Inclusion Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (EIF OGEF), a fund of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The company recently obtained $50 million through a fundraising campaign. This operation has enabled major players in the African energy sector to contribute to its capital. This is the case of Mitsubishi Corporation, the financing arm of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, or Engie Raising Energy, an investment fund of the French company Engie.
Bboxx is also diversifying its activities in Rwanda by embarking on biogas cooking with its “Bboxx Cook” systems. The company plans to install 5,000 of them in Rwandan towns and villages by 2020.
Jean Marie Takouleu