Tomorrow’s Connected Community is being rolled out in the rural village of Sikpé Afidégnon in Togo, following its inauguration by the H.E. President Faure Gnassingbé, President of the Republic of Togo. The entire village, comprised of 300 houses and 4,000 people in the south of the country, is to be powered by solar electricity including, streetlights, households, schools and small shops. The community can also access other utility products and services, such as clean cooking solutions, internet services and water pumps. BBOXX has implemented the concept in Togo alongside EDF, which holds a 50 percent stake in BBOXX Togo, under the brand “BBOXX avec EDF”. BBOXX and EDF are also engaged with additional innovative international and local partners to make this Togo project a reality. It is run on a micro-grid developed by General Electric to meet higher energy consumption needs, as well as BBOXX’s solar home systems to power households and SMEs. All of the services operate through BBOXX Pulse, the company’s digital management platform, which manages customer service and product maintenance using data and predictive analytics. Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and Co-Founder of BBOXX commented: “Tomorrow’s Connected Community demonstrates our ability to supply electricity and other essential utilities to not only individual households, but to entire communities and businesses. By working with partners, we can truly deliver a decentralised and digitalised future in the developing world at scale. We have shown what can be possible and we look forward to rolling this “community of the future” out across other locations globally. The launch builds on the success of Tomorrow’s Rural Home, which BBOXX unveiled in Kigali, Rwanda, in November 2018. Tomorrow’s Connected Community now takes BBOXX’s vision several steps further – scaling from the Home to this community, leapfrogging the need for traditional large grid infrastructure. This launch coincides with BBOXX providing energy to a milestone 12,000 households and impacting 60,000 customers in Togo. BBOXX has operated in Togo since December 2017, after being awarded a Togo Government tender to install solar home systems across the country. In 2018, an investment from BEAM, the investment platform created by Bamboo Capital Partners further accelerated the growth of BBOXX Togo. The EDF Group supports BBOXX development by contributing commercial resources, technological know-how in battery performances, as well as its on-the-ground experience in developing off-grid solutions in several African countries. Valerie Levkov, EDF Senior Vice-President in charge of Africa, commented, “We are proud to be actively involved with BBOXX Togo to deliver innovative, CO2-free and life-changing electricity solutions. Mini-grids such as the one we inaugurated today represent a major achievement in accelerating access to electricity in Africa. We do believe it is replicable not only in Togo but more broadly across Africa and we are looking forward to further developing similar solutions elsewhere.”
BBOXX and EDF have jointly launched the Tomorrow's Connected Community concept in a rural village in south Togo. The initiative will deliver solar power to streetlights, homes, schools and shops in Sikpe Afidegnon, which has a population of 4,000. Residents will also gain access to other services, such as the internet and water pumps. The system will run on a micro-grid provided by General Electric and BBOXX's solar home systems. "We are very excited about this project because it is an example for how we can work together with local communities around the world to create solutions that benefit everyone," said John Taylor, CEO of EDF. EDF holds a 50% stake in BBOXX Togo and supplies commercial resources, along with battery and off-grid expertise.