Africa's Big Switch (ABS)
Africa’s Big Switch is a podcast that aims to identify current and future solutions to complex problems on the African continent. Examples of such problems include: Climate Change, Homelessness, Poverty, Political Instability, Famine, Floods etc.Our first season sheds light and sparks conversation around the future of energy in Africa.Why Energy?Modern society depends on reliable and affordable energy services to function smoothly and to develop equitably. A well-established energy system supports all sectors from medicine and education to agriculture, infrastructure, communications and high-technology. However, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there are over 770 million people in the world today without access to electricity, 77% of which are in Sub-saharan Africa. The Sustainable Development Goal 7 of the UN Agenda, aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. Given we are only a few years to 2030, we explore the progress, challenges and opportunities for achieving this goal across
Africa's Big Switch (ABS)
ABS E12 Arone: Manufacturing Batteries to Power Middle-income Households
We sat down with Emmanuel Ezenwere the CEO of Arone, a company whose mission is to pioneer technologies that democratize access to basic amenities required to live a better life.
Emmanuel is an entrepreneur with 8 years of experience building technologies that focus on the development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and clean energy technologies. Arone looks to solve issues around access to electricity and healthcare within Nigeria, with a potential to scale to other developing economies.
Emmanuel’s work has been recognized and published nationally & internationally by the likes of Total Energies, Oxford Business Group (UK) & BusinessDay.
The key themes we explore on this episode include:
- The challenges of building a battery assembly plant in Nigeria.
- Emmanuel's unfortunate encounter with a fraudster
- Arone's innovative battery solution
- The opportunities for solar cell manufacturing in Africa
Have a listen!
*As at the time this episode was recorded, Arone was looking to raise startup funding. Please reach out to Emmanuel for further enquiries on this.
