Season 5 episode 1 - Energizing the Entrepreneurial Spirit

[Mutare, Zimbabwe]

Esther Mafara, Project Manager of the Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies Zimbabwe: Most people in Zimbabwe live in the countryside amongst natural beauty and wildlife. But our land and this way of life is under threat. I come from a background of farmers, so I know a thing or two about the pressures of farmers due to climate change. Unstable weather is devastating for rural communities and they already have their odds stacked against them. TotalEnergies has been hunting for the best entrepreneurs across Africa, to contribute to tackle energy poverty and to help the transition towards lower carbon energies. One of this year's big winners is based here in Zimbabwe, and they have a solution that could be revolutionary. Our contest is called the StartUpper Challenge and one of this year's Pan African winners is GridBox. GridBox is run by two co-founders Tapiwa and Tinaye.

Tinaye Makoni, CEO and Co-Founder of Gridbox: Our solution is mobile solar containers for off-grid farmers, which uses AI to make irrigation more efficient. In Zimbabwe, we have experienced energy poverty and we do not know when the lights are going to go off. I started our company with my friend Tapiwa and we have gone on to do wonderful things with our solution. We weren’t guaranteed work after university, and we saw that energy poverty was at the root cause of this issue across the continent. Around 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity, meaning that farmers are highly dependent on rainfall for irrigation. But water is scarce with drought. This is why we developed GridBox.

Tapiwa Chamboko, CTA and Co-Founder of Gridbox: The mini grids are portable so can be moved and used when they are needed and bypass a long construction time normally needed to bring electricity infrastructure to these areas. These smart chips use AI-driven precision farming techniques, optimizing irrigation schedules and water usage. Electricity can be channeled to operate water pumps, allowing farmers to tap into other water sources amid drought, such as groundwater and rivers. This stretches existing water supply, improving yield and food security.

Samuel Murenje, Farmer at the Hartzell High School: We managed to grow crops and feed the school children. The excess was sold to the community to fund other school projects, to secure a brighter future for the school.

Tinaye Makoni: It is truly amazing to see what electricity can do for people. At this school, they have got a prototype version of GridBox that runs a 20-kilowatt system, and we are upgrading this to a 250-kilowatt system, to expand their energy needs, and make them more productive. We have created a pay-as-you-go system, which means that we are fractionalizing the cost to access electricity. That means low earners can be able to pay for what they can use.

[TotalEnergies Head Office - Harare, Zimbabwe]

Esther Mafara: Now that GridBox has won the StartUpper Challenge, they'll get business mentorship to enable them to grow and scale, implementing their solution across Zimbabwe and hopefully across the continent. The StartUpper Challenge is a wonderful opportunity to play an active role in the development of the country. We had a staggering 40,000 registrations submitted during the challenge in 32 countries this year. But not only has GridBox been awarded in Zimbabwe as a winner, they were also selected as one of the four Pan African winners.

Tinaye Makoni: Being an entrepreneur in Zimbabwe and across the globe is not an easy task, but you have to have faith that a door will open. And TotalEnergies has helped us to get closer to that door.

Esther Mafara: The spirit of the Zimbabwean people is Ubuntu. Ubuntu means togetherness, Ubuntu means unity, and this is how we are going to fight climate change together.