Africa-Press – Lesotho. KANONO Thabane has powered the rural off-grid communities of Thaba-Tseka. “After struggling to charge my gadgets during my brief stay in the outskirts of Thaba-Tseka, I decided to leave behind a long-term solution,” Thabane says.
Here is the story of the National University of Lesotho (NUL) alumnus who graduated in BA in Economics (2011), MSc in Economics (2013) and MSc in Sustainably Energy (2020).
He is the brains behind the Solar Kiosk, a product meant to provide charging of phones and other small gadgets, and point of sale (POS) services in disadvantaged rural off grid areas found in Lesotho.
The aim is to develop more agile solar kiosks for all locations not just totally off grid areas. “I was away from home, and I needed my gadgets for communication and work, but I couldn’t use them because their batteries were dead and it was such a struggle to charge them,” he says.
“All I could come across was dilapidated charging equipment that ruined my gadgets’ battery life.
The sole custodian of the electricity grid in Lesotho services mostly the urban population and so many businesses and individuals face electricity shortages.
“Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing like an adventure in the mountains, being surrounded by nature’s giants.
There is the sense of awe as you are immersed amongst the wilderness,” he says. “The fresh air is for comfort after a hard day. ” In the rural areas, communities are smaller in size and sparsely populated.
There are slower means of communication. Of course, people do own phones. Charging time is costly and time consuming. It is mostly done when people go to the nearest towns or at a neighbour’s place who owns a solar panel.
In 2018, Thabane decided to venture into offering a much-needed solution. Businesses and individuals were to have opportunities to charge their mobile phones quickly, cheaply, cleanly and with flexibility.
The idea was to develop a low-cost franchise business model that would enable entrepreneurial-minded individuals to deliver services and products, generate revenue growth and foster income growth.
Solar Kiosks are equipped with charging stations powered to charge small electronic devices through solar energy and offer services and products ranging from mobile money transfers, electronic vouchers etc.
The Solar Kiosks replace fossil fuels with solar energy, thus reducing carbon emissions. In 2018 the pilot project began with a single prototype kiosk in Mashai.
Later on phase two which ran for two years (2018 -2020), which was mostly monitoring was in six locations: Linakaneng, Linakeng, Mashai, Lesobeng, Ha-Mokoto and Sehong-Hong (all in Thaba-Tseka).
“It took hard work, patience and consistent monitoring to finally come up with the best kiosk,” he says. The perfect battery for the job had to be determined. Material best suited for transportation and offer protection to avoid theft of the valuables inside the Kiosk was decided upon.
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