Unilever and Bbox partner to improve renewable energy access in Kenya

Image: Bboxx

Bboxx started out as a platform for providing energy services to homes and businesses across Africa, and now describes itself as a “super platform” that provides logistics, services and other essentials for businesses and education, such as smartphones.

In partnering with Sunlight, the organisation is aiming to extend its existing network in Kenya and bring clean energy access to at least one million additional residents within a three-year period. Access will be provided to homes and to businesses, including retailers in Kenya which are part of Unilever’s network.

Homes and businesses will be made aware of the opportunity to connect through a new marketing campaign. Once signed up, they will be able to speak with specialists to answer their questions and oversee the connection. The focus will be on rural areas, where around 40% of the population are unable to access electricity by The World Bank’s estimates.

Information has not been provided at this stage about how, specifically, the energy will be generated and transmitted. However, Bboxx is famed for its energy mini-grid offerings, ‘plug-and-play’ home solar and cleaner cooking fuel offers.

“In line with Unilever’s purpose, to make sustainable living commonplace, our Sunlight brand is on a proud mission in partnership with Bboxx to not only help the community access clean power through our vast distribution networks but also ensure that they experience the value of its many products under the Sunlight Masterbrand,” said Unilever’s home care director for East Africa, Henry Muchauraya.

Bboxx’s chief executive and co-founder Mansoor Hamayun added that he is “delighted to be partnering with one of the leading FMCG players” in a “step towards the UN’s seventh Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), clean energy for all”.

Once the rollout is underway in Kenya, further actions will be planned by the two partner organisations. Their joint ambition is to improve the lives of five million people within the next ten years, across Kenya, other nations in Africa, and, potentially, other nations and regions with clean energy access challenges.

Join the conversation during edie’s SDG Focus Week

Next week (w/b 19 September), edie will be hosting a Focus Week editorial campaign on the theme of the UN SDGs, providing an array of exclusive articles, reports and events on how organisations can align their strategies and actions with the Global Goals framework in the 2020s.

Click here to see a full list of what to expect and to register for our online events as part of the Focus Week. There are two of these. On Tuesday 20 September from 2-3pm BST, we’re partnering with Kingspan to explore how best to decarbonise buildings in line with net-zero. Then, on Thursday 22 September from 12.30-4pm BST, we’re hosing an afternoon of Inspiration Sessions dedicated to the SDGs, kindly sponsored by The Woodland Trust and Neighbourly. Click here to see full agendas for these events and to sign up.