Households in Senegal could soon be able to light their homes using their mobile phones. Two French start-up companies have come up with a new streetlighting system using a smart card which will allow Africans to prepay their electricity.
The product called the Nanogrid aims to wean Africans away from traditional polluting sources like kerosene to solar power on a continent where 900 million people don’t have access to electricity.
Nanogrids in this context are mini-electricity grid connected to a solar street lamp, able to wire up eight households at any one time.
Solar street lamps have been available for several years now and are mainly used in rural villlages cut off from the electricity grid.
So this product is not new. What is, is its prepaid system. Households will be provided with an electricity box with a smart card inside, enabling them to basically pay as they go.