Major provider of solar-energy solutions opens shop
A co-founder CEO with Zola, a newly-branded company formerly known as M-Power, Mr Xavier Helgesen (left) demonstrates how electronic devices such as TV and radio sets operate when linked to solar energy. This was during the inauguration of the first retail shop in Arusha last Thursday. Right is another co-founder of the firm Erica Mackey. PHOTO | FILBERT RWEYEMAMU
What you need to know:
The first retail shop in Arusha is located along Ndovu Street near the Central Market and its opening attracted scores of people and traders selling their wares in the area.
Arusha. M-Power, a provider of solar-energy solutions, opened its first retail shop here on Thursday under a new consumer brand name whereby it will now be known as Zola.
Zola is an adaptation to the Swahili word “sola” (solar) and will serve as the brand of the company’s operations in Rwanda and Tanzania and evolve into a pan-African brand as Off-Grid Electric expands across the continent. Off-Grid Electric will remain the company’s group name.
“This new name better expresses both the company’s East African roots and transformation character,” said the head of Channel Partnerships, Mr Godfrey Kakembo.
He said Zola shops will enable customers to demo equipment, sign up for in-home installation and give the gift of modern energy to family members living in remote villages.
The first retail shop in Arusha is located along Ndovu Street near the Central Market and its opening attracted scores of people and traders selling their wares in the area.
The opening of the shop, said Mr Kakembo, would make it easier for customers to access affordable and reliable solar energy in their homes and businesses.
Zola will serve as Off-Grid Electric’s brand in Tanzania and Rwanda.
“With our expansion continent-wide and our introduction of short-term ownership, we needed a brand that worked across geographies and represented the transformation of our customers’ lives,” said Off-Grid Electric co-founder Ms Erica Mackey in a statement to the media.
She said Off-Grid Electric intends to make Zola the first pan African mass market solar brand.
The event in Arusha came on the heels of the launch of Off Grid Electric’s line of solar appliances for rural entrepreneurs announced by US President Barack Obama last month at Entrepreneurship Summit in Palo Alto in California.
