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 E19 Uwana Energy: Creating an Online Solar Marketplace
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Bolaji Akinola-Alli
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Episode 19
We had a conversation with Natasha Ibori, the Co-founder of Uwana Energy, a clean energy management platform and marketplace, to help people seamlessly transition to clean, affordable energy.
Uwana Energy is an impact-driven entrepreneur committed to giving more people the freedom to do whatever they want.
Having worked in climate and finance across 4 continents, she is experienced in building holistic solutions. Natasha has assisted Growald Climate Fund in allocating $1bn in aligned funding for energy transition projects globally and has executed award-winning development initiatives with Access Bank Plc and PwC Nigeria.
We cover the following topics on this episode:
- An insight into Uwana Energy's pivot away from the provision of hardware products to the creation of an online solar marketplace.
- The need to understand the nuances in doing business across multiple parts of Nigeria e.g. the need for a physical office space.
- The realities of being an entrepreneur including the need to constantly learn new skills network and raise funding.
Have a listen!