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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Jillian Ambrose

‘Electricity is fundamental to quality of life’: the man bringing off-grid, pay-as-you-go power to Africa

Mansoor Hamayun, co-founder and chief executive of Bboxx.
Mansoor Hamayun, co-founder and chief executive of Bboxx. Photograph: John Godwin/Handout

In the next four years, British entrepreneur Mansoor Hamayun expects to connect 36 million people to an electricity source, many for the first time. It is an ambition that would see his clean energy company, Bboxx, expand its reach tenfold across sub-Saharan Africa.

The London-headquartered company has grown from an idealistic startup with hopes of transforming the lives of African households to a company offering pay-as-you-go solar power, batteries, smartphones and electric motorbikes to about 3.6 million people across Africa in little more than a decade. Now, a $100m (£78m) investment from EnerTech, a Kuwait-based investor, is about to spur its fastest growth yet.

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