ep. 33/1: Empowering African communities with greentech in dangerous countries (Torsten Schreiber. Africa GreenTec)

Mission First - Entrepreneurs for future

Dec 13 2022 • 14 mins

If you are into greentech, product innovation, social entrepreneurship, developing a business in Africa, or simply into inspiring entrepreneurship. This episode is for you.

Which entrepreneur can say they risk their lives every day to have a positive impact on the planet?

My guest, Torsten Schreiber is the Founder & CEO of Africa GreenTec and four other companies which have the sole mission of empowering people to achieve self-determination and growth.

Torsten is a serial sustainable social entrepreneur and a politically active climate change activist.

He is also a mentee of Muhammad Yunus, walking the talk, getting his hands dirty in very dangerous places of the world to help those who really need it.

In this episode we will talk about Africa GreenTec. The company which brings clean electricity, water and cool chains to some of the most isolated and dangerous regions in Africa.

Benefits stretch beyond the commodities. These places become more stable, safer and economically attractive.

Africa GreenTec has:

⚡150 FTEs

⚡30 sites in 4 countries in Africa

⚡Assets for more than 25M euros

✅ 24.975 people supplied with electricity

✅ 2.080 max. Tons of CO2 saved

✅ 419 small businesses empowered to increase productivity

✅ They’ve celebrated access to electricity with 100.000+ people

Learn from the broad experience Torsten has to share on 💡How to use a bottom up approach to help African communities achieve economic growth 💡and at the same time safely build a business in a risky country.

You can find out more about:

- Why donations actually might hurt Africa’s development

- The benefits of high-quality German technology under harsh conditions

- How to involve users in the design of the solution

- Expect nothing, be lean

- How to find the right price point for your product

- What motivates people to become changemakers

- The rules of thumb to follow when in a risky country

This is episode 1 of a 3-episode mini-series.

Here is what you can find in each episode:

Episode 1/3: What’s the significance of sustainable business models? What does sustainable electricity brings to African communities?

Episode 2/3: How to use a bottom up approach? How as a for-profit-company to set the right price for the service provided?