Hello readers, It is another exciting day on Cleanbuild Voices!
In today’s edition of our #Women4theClimate, we introduce Liliane Ndabaneze Chabuka, Co-Founder and CEO, Women’s Initiative for Delivering clean Energy to Africa (WidEnergy Africa Ltd).
WidEnergy Africa Ltd is a women-led company that is dedicated to the last-mile distribution of clean, reliable, and affordable energy solutions to underserved households and small businesses, while empowering African women to be clean energy distribution champions and active agents for climate change.
This is especially personal to Liliane since about 72% of the population in Zambia relies on toxic and expensive alternative energy sources because they have no access to reliable electricity.
For Liliane, the motivating force for co-founding WidEnergy Ltd was two-fold: an opportunity to improve the lives of the Zambian people by erasing energy poverty and a business opportunity.
Her sense of accomplishment comes from results. For instance, WidEnergy has connected about 5,000+ homes with Solar Home Systems combined with entry-level mobile phones. WidEnergy is able to achieve this by offering affordable packs to electrification with its pay-as-you-go solar solution to off-grid homes.
Liliane seeks to educate women on the benefits of using high-quality clean energy products, knowing the risks of climate change on their lives and their abilities to become the change-makers in climate change adaptation and mitigation, at the community level.
Liliane holds a strong belief that women, especially those in rural areas, are the “primary CEOs” in their households, and are important for economic growth if they had access to opportunities and financial support.
She is committed to contributing to the improvement of social issues that affect women such as unemployment, underemployment, poverty, and all other adverse climate impacts.
Liliane hopes to expand WidEnergy Africa into all regions of Zambia and beyond, providing more employment opportunities to more women and girls within the communities.
Watch this space as we’ll be back for another edition of our #Women4theClimate.