If you thought you had high expectations for yourself, you should read about Erica Mackey and her life goal of bringing light to off-grid Africa within a decade. As the co-founder of Off Grid Electric, she shares this goal of providing power to 10 million households benefiting 50 million people. How do they purpose to do that? Well the The company came up with applying the mobile phone industry’s business model to the provision of electric power–customers pre-pay for electrical services (e.g, light, TV, mobile phone charging) weekly via mobile money. Not only does Off-Grid Electric provide lighting for Africans who are off the grid, but it is also clean solar energy. The company says, “Over the next decade the renewable energy sector will become one of the largest employers in Africa, and we are already leading the charge. We are creating over 40 new jobs per month through our in-house recruitment and training Off Grid Academy. Named one of the most exciting places to work in Africa, our company provides economic opportunity to an eager and talented local workforce, in a fast-paced startup environment”.
One of the few negative aspects of industrializing an area is definitely the impact it will have on the environment. For Off-Grid Electric, they were already one step ahead when they committed to going solar for the product energy source.