By Neo Kolane
African Clean Energy (ACE) country director Rethabile Mafura’s career drive comes from her experiencing energy poverty during her childhood.
She vividly remembers walking long distances to school and collecting firewood for cooking and warmth.
“I could see clouds of smoke coming out of small houses’ doors and windows in our village. The indoor air was unbearable. Many got tuberculosis,” Mafura recounts.
In this interview with theReporter as the world marks Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Day (MSMEs) this week, she speaks about her organisation’s efforts to promote the use of clean energy in Lesotho where only 40 percent of the population have access to this vital resource.
theReporter: What is African Clean Energy?
Mafura: African Clean Energy (ACE), was founded in Lesotho in 2011. It is the second highest ranked B Corp in the world. This is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency. We are both a manufacturer of renewable energy products and an Energy as a Service (EaaS) pioneer. Currently, ACE operates in Lesotho, Uganda, Kenya and Cambodia.
We also manufacture biomass cook-stoves which are intended to eradicate the catastrophic impact of traditional cooking methods on health. The stoves enable consumers to maintain clean cooking and sustainable energy for a healthy lifestyle. Our target market is everyone in Lesotho but mostly people in the remote areas, those in hidden villages that have no access to electricity.
Electricity and other sources of energy like gas are expensive. Clean energy stoves therefore come in handy as they are easy to acquire and affordable. They can be used for heating, lighting and cooking at the same time.
What services do you offer?
We are offering clean energy in form of an improved solar power cooking stove. It can also be used for charging mobile phones and providing lighting.
What has been some of your organisation’s major successes and challenges since its inception?
Two other ACE factories were opened in Cambodia and Uganda in 2020 and 2022 respectively. We also had remote area smartphone penetration of 2500 phones sold as ACE connect. We also exported dozens of stoves to Ukraine where 90 percent of the beneficiaries were women. ACE has also been able to offsetted thousands of data-underwritten tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Lesotho alone.
What is the significance of World MSMEs Day?
To us as a company, we believe that one does not start big. It all starts with an idea. Sometimes that idea sounds meaningless and a person does not have the right words or does not even know where to start writing a proper business plan that is worth the attention of an investor. To help in this regard, I’m forming part of a mentorship programme where we help start-ups to know how to pitch an idea to a person who can make a difference to the very idea.
We want to make young people and young companies able to pitch ideas to someone and how they can identify and reach investors. We understand the value of business and work towards overcoming any hiccups that might prop up.
The government should also try to encourage more investments in young and medium companies. We tend to just give education but we have since seen that it is best to have knowledge on how to start a business because there is not much employment in the country anyway.
We should not teach children to want to be employed, we have to teach them to be employers. When they are employers, we should be able to help them find funding for those ideas they have, to make them impactful.
How does Africa Clean Energy collaborate with other MSMEs in Lesotho?
ACE forms part of the private sector expert committee which is intended to help in the acceleration of businesses in the private sector in Lesotho like the Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (BEDCO) and Vodacom Lesotho, to mention but a few.
Are MSMEs in Lesotho playing their role towards assisting the government to achieve Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS)?
SDG 1 seeks to encourage eradication of poverty. We play a part by encouraging savings of up to 81 percent on monthly energy expenses.
To meet SDG 3 goals of promoting good health and wellbeing, we encourage use of smokeless cooking, and protecting the end-user from exposure to harmful household air pollutants which is responsible for the deaths of over four million people each year to related diseases.
ACE is committed to hiring 50 percent women as part of its efforts to fulfil SDG 5 which aims to promote gender equality.
We’re also working hard to help the government meet SDG 7 that calls for affordable and clean energy by using hybrid solution solar, biomass and sustainable fuel.
ACE further aims to help avert CO2 emissions by 2.5-5 tonnes/year (conservatively) on average under SDG 13 calls for climate action.
Lesotho has undertaken to move towards the use of clean energy but progress has been slow in their regard. What do you think is the problem and how can this situation be addressed?
We are a factory, we are supposed to have exemption of goods coming in especially those which will assist us in assembling our stove. But as it is we still have to pay duty.
If there are no investments or talk of funding, and the little money that’s there goes towards duties and value added taxes (VATs) without exemption then there will be reluctance by investors to come and grow the clean energy sector.
The government has to review policies surrounding investors coming in, in addition to just relaxing and assisting with VISAs.
Are MSMEs in Lesotho sustainable and celebrated? If not, why do you think that is the case?
I don’t know.
MSME’s contribute to economic development in various ways: by creating employment for rural and urban growing labour force. How is your company playing its part in this regard?
We have 21 energy hubs that were built and co-funded by the European Union. The shops were built in very remote places like Ribaneng, Ha Lejone, Ha Sekake, Thaba- Tseka, Butha-Buthe, Holy Cross, Mount Moorosi, Mphaki, Likhutlong, Motsekuoa. Each shop has four people, including a guard. We hire locally.
MSMEs also provide desirable sustainability and innovation in the economy as a whole. Do you see your company achieving this role and lasting the race?
We build braziers that use sustainable energy and promotes zero emissions. They also allow collection of data through the ACE connect app. This gadget has achieved smartphone penetration within remote areas of Lesotho which is something very rare.
You’ve spread your wings to other countries such as Uganda, Cambodia, and Kenya. What projects are you undertaking there?
We are doing the same operations that we’re undertaking here in Lesotho. We are also providing stoves for refugee camps in Uganda.
