Governments and donors in sub-Saharan Africa that adopt coordinated approaches to electrifying rural communities using distributed renewables can count on meaningful job creation, according to recent data from REEEP in Zambia.

REEEP, which manages the Swedish-funded Beyond the Grid Fund Zambia (BGFZ), is so far supporting four private decentralized renewable energy companies in the southern African country: Fenix International, Vitalite, Standard Microgrid and Emerging Cooking Solutions. Data for the 15 months between July 2017 to October 2018 shows that the companies created a total of 1,165 full- and part-time jobs, an increase of more than 1300% during that period. About three-quarters of the jobs were commission based.

Fenix, which provides home solar systems and appliances financed through installments and was recently acquired by French energy giant ENGIE, has expanded rapidly in Zambia, and is currently serving over 70,000 households. “We will continue our rapid expansion across Zambia”, said Chipo Phiri, Head of Talent at Fenix Zambia. […]

This article was originally published on Power For All website and can be accessed here.