How to Boost Energy Access in Africa with Local Manufacturing
By Ayobami Adedinni
The sun is abundant, but access to reliable, affordable energy remains a steep challenge for millions across Africa. While innovative products exist, challenging business models and a fragile supply chain reliant on distant manufacturers often undermine progress. Unleashing the power of local manufacturing in Africa could contribute to the solution. This is about building a resilient, homegrown ecosystem where product developers, manufacturers, and installers thrive together.
What Are the Biggest Hurdles for Local Producers?
Many brilliant minds are designing energy solutions tailored for African contexts. However, turning these designs into physical products is fraught with obstacles. The current system makes it difficult to compete on cost and scale.
Key challenges include:
– High Tooling Costs: Initial setup for production molds and jigs is expensive.
– Import Dependencies/components’ unavailability: Sourcing certain components locally can be challenging, time-consuming, and expensive.
– Low Order Volumes: Small batch sizes prevent economies of scale, keeping unit costs high.
Can Local Manufacturing Be Truly Competitive?
The perception is that overseas mass production and imports will always be cheaper. While certainly true for ultra-high-volume goods, the competitive landscape shifts when we consider the total cost of ownership.
Local production offers compelling advantages that offset a potential modest price increase:
– Faster Iteration: Developers can test and improve products quickly with a local partner, and learn faster by learning from other users
– Reduced Logistics: Shorter supply chains mean lower shipping costs, better control, and less risk.
– Customization: Producers can easily adapt products to local needs and preferences.
– Economic Boost: Money spent on local manufacturing circulates within the local economy, creating jobs.
Local knowledge and capacity creation: Local product development and manufacturing increase local capacity and experience for future developments and repairs.
A locally made product with a slightly higher cost but guaranteed spare part availability and direct technical support is often more valuable than a cheaper, unserviceable import. This particularly applies to early-stage small and medium-sized companies and entrepreneurs in the growing phase. This relationship builds trust, which is the ultimate currency in local markets, and enables scale.
How Do We Connect Developers, Makers, and Installers?
Building a strong network is the final piece of the puzzle. The goal is to create a value chain based on collaboration and the exchange of local and regional players. For example, a product developer requiring 50 or 100-unit batches for a pilot needs to find a manufacturer willing to serve that volume.
An installer facing a specific component failure needs a way to signal that demand to a local workshop that can respond. Creating this visibility—through shared standards, open designs, and partnership platforms—is how we move from isolated efforts to a powerful, integrated industry.