Adam Goundi is a young Beninese entrepreneur who has embarked on the adventure of marketing mini tropicalized mobile solar kits. These new types of devices are gradually appearing on the Beninese market, aiming to bring light to even the most modest homes. Meeting with a singular entrepreneur.
For Adam Goundi, the entrepreneurial adventure started from a very simple question: “How to reduce the import of small too noisy generator sets that regularly break down?”. If the answer, marketing mini solar kits, may seem a priori trivial to the young man, it will take on the appearance of an initiatory quest. “With my team, we thought of adapting the mini solar kits to the climatic conditions of Africa. For this, we have established a partnership with a Taiwanese company based in Burkina Faso which manufactures tropicalized solar panels for us, into which we have integrated our humidity and sunshine levels. ”
Today, his company markets these kits in the form of wooden or metal boxes. “We have incorporated the entire system into our boxes. So there is the battery, the inverter, the converter and the charge controller. Our kits have a power that varies between 3.5 to 5 Amps (A). So with just one 3.5 A kit, you can turn the appliances and lamps of a small apartment. On the other hand, for a house that works with a 15A meter, the construction of a mini solar power plant is recommended. “, He said.
25 year lifespan
If, according to the entrepreneur, the prices of his equipment (between 250,000 and 500,000 CFA francs) are “slightly higher than what is found in the trade”, his boxes compensate for this difference in cost thanks to “their large performances and their lifespan which is 25 years. ”An argument which seems to convince its target, since, as Adam Goundi explains, his start-up is growing at a good pace. “We have installed our panels in four households in Cotonou which already testify to the quality of the equipment. We have also installed them in Abomey, in Parakou and in Djougou in the small village of Dewa. “, He affirms before emphasizing that with his team, he prefers to take the time to refine their model. “We are in no rush, this is an emerging start-up. We want to take the time to master our field of activity so that the first population who will use our panels is satisfied. “ Also, he takes care, for the time being, of the daily management of his activity and the hazards that are inherent in it. “Sometimes I spend days spending without any income when I have to pay the ten people I employ as well as the rent for my offices in Cotonou and Djougou.” taxation which complicates this equation. “Something has to be done for emerging businesses. Taxes kill entrepreneurship in Benin. From the first year, you are exempt but the following year you are charged the maximum rate. “
But these difficulties do not prevent him from dreaming and the future, Adam Goundi sees it as a promise that he must keep. “My main project in the near future is to install a solar power plant of 40 and 50 Kilovoltamperes (KvA) that can serve all the municipalities of Benin. We have the technology to do it, ”he insists.
While waiting for his appointment with the triumph, he will soon travel to Djougou, his hometown, where he is about to sign an agreement for the installation of solar street lights on some arteries in the city. Perhaps the opportunity for the young man to become a prophet at home.
read on: http://www.ecceafrica.com
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