Ghana/South Africa : Mosia Nthabiseng, the entrepreneur who supplies solar energy to households in West Africa

Mosia Nthabiseng is a Ghanaian and South-African entrepreneur. She is the co-founder of Easy Solar, a company that supplies solar energy solutions to communities having little access to the electric grid. In 2019, she was named « Social entrepreneur of the Year » by the World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation.

Since 2015, Mosia Nthabiseng has been providing reliable and affordable electricity to households underserved by the electric grid in West Africa through her Sierra-Leone based company, Solar energy.

Born in Ghana, she moved to South Africa at a young age. Her interest for electricity began while she was still young. As a teenager, she experienced frequent blackouts due to an unreliable supply of electricity.

After her high school, she graduated in 2011 with a bachelor in Business science, finance and accounting in Cape Town University. After working as a consultant in strategy and innovation in Deloitte in South Africa, she flew to the US in 2014 where she obtained a Master’s degree in Energy finance and policy in Columbia School of international and public affairs.

It was during her studies in California that she met the ones who would become later the co-founders of Solar Energy. While studying, they started conceiving of the project of supplying reliable electricity to households in West Africa. Together, they won funding competitions in the US, namely the D-Prize in 2015 and the Columbia Venture competition in 2016. Thanks to the first fundings, they conducted a survey on electricity availability among 1500 households in Sierra-Leone.

In 2016, the company was officially launched. It provides underserved households in Sierra Leone with high quality solar energy devices, such as lanterns and home systems, throughout the country via a network of shops and agents. Solar Energy has a dozen of sale points across the country.

The company also offers payment facilities to poor families so that they can afford their own solar panels. Since its creation, the company has provided solar energy to over 40,000 people in Sierra Leone. It plans to expand its activities in neighbouring countries such as Guinea and Liberia.

Mosia Nthabiseng has received several honours and awards. In 2019, she was listed in Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 ranking (Tech Category). In 2018, Forbes ranked her among the 30 most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa. In 2020, she was named « Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year » by Forbes Africa.