For years, people living in rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa have faced the challenge of low access to reliable electricity. Due to the high cost of transmitting grid power to these often scattered communities, they are usually left with no or unreliable access to electricity. By combining the power of mobile money and solar energy, the micro-grid industry offers a solution to these communities. In this free-flowing talk, Simon shares the lessons he has learned in his quest to bring cheap reliable electricity to underserved communities. He gives illuminating insights as to the impact this brings to the people and shares the idea of using energy for the greater good. Simon Bransfield-Garth is CEO of Azuri Technologies, a business that combines the latest solar innovation with mobile payment technology to bring affordable, clean energy to the 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa that have no access to mains power. Simon has developed Azuri Technologies into a leading pay-as-you-go off-grid solar home solutions provider with a vast network of agents and distributors across sub-Saharan Africa. He is an award-winning entrepreneur with a passion for technology and the role it plays in addressing some of the biggest challenges facing developing economies.
Through state-of-the-art innovation, Simon believes African economies can bypass costly traditional infrastructure to directly access the digital world and knowledge-based economy. Simon has spent the last 30 years building rapid growth, technology-based businesses in a range of sectors including, automotive and telecoms sectors. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx