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    • Devex Impact
    • Focus on: Innovation

    Africa's solar market still 'a blue ocean'

    Despite a growing number of companies emerging in the solar power market in Africa, they still only serve a small percentage of the population leaving a massive marketplace. WakaWaka's co-founder and CEO Camille van Gestel talks new business models and prospects for growth in this video interview.

    By Adva Saldinger // 27 October 2015
    WakaWaka’s co-founder and CEO Camille van Gestel talks new business models and prospects for growth with Devex Impact associate editor Adva Saldinger.

    Despite a growing number of companies emerging in the solar power market in Africa, they still only serve a small percentage of the population.

    “It’s still basically a blue ocean, our main competitor we see is the kerosene lantern lamp still and the candle and the battery-powered torch, that is what we are competing with,” said Camille van Gestel, co-founder and CEO of WakaWaka, a solar power company.

    WakaWaka’s philosophy is that the cheapest product is not always the best — its product costs $80 but will last longer than many cheaper solar lights on the market, van Gestel said.

    Where innovation is important is in pricing models and that’s where WakaWaka has been focusing — it is working on a microfinance model in Rwanda where consumers can buy a scratch card and text for service to pay for light at 75 cents per week.

    To learn more about WakaWaka’s work watch the video above and to learn more about the solar power market in Africa, read this article.

    To read additional content on innovation, go to Focus On: Innovation in partnership with Philips.

    • Southern Africa
    • Central Africa
    • West Africa
    Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).

    About the author

    • Adva Saldinger

      Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal

      Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.

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