Right now, around 90% of small and medium-sized businesses in Africa suffer due to a lack of energy access. By enabling the use of energy for income-generating activities, Kowry can assist in building the infrastructure to serve communities with reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy access at scale. For Rolls-Royce, investing in the economic, social and environmental benefits of Kowry’s mission was a simple decision.
“Having the backing of Rolls-Royce Power Systems alongside our scale-based business model, we’re able to adapt to the changing market and the needs of our customers quickly. But the investment really started 15 years ago,” explains Ndiarka. “Being part of a large corporation gave me the opportunity to learn across multiple functions and that there was always space to grow and develop.”
Today, Ndiarka and Kowry are using that knowledge to enhance communities at a large scale, working with local independent power providers in countries like Mali, Nigeria, and Kenya to bring power to thousands of people in remote areas.
“When people talk about start-ups providing power to communities in Africa they often think of small businesses and small towns,” continues Ndiarka. “But the work we’re doing today is on a gigantic scale and the advancements we can make through digitalisation and IoT are enormous. Working with Rolls-Royce gives us the global presence and knowledge to not only power change at scale, but to also draw upon its human value so that we can always keep our end customers at the heart of what we do.”
Find out more about Rolls-Royce Power Systems investing in Kowry