Our core belief is that renewable energy in Africa is the future of food security, employment, agriculture, and fisheries. That’s what Power OffGrid is here for.
Mission
Our mission is to touch people’s lives by bringing innovative, reliable, and affordable hybrid smart clean energy systems to both rural and urban areas in Somalia. Through our innovation and workmanship, we aspire to deliver small and mega energy projects through holistic sustainable development solutions that create a sustainable path to industrialization and prosperity in Somalia.
Vision
Our vision is to build better, stronger, and brighter communities through technology and innovation that’s focused on addressing basic human needs, which include energy access, health, food security, water scarcity, and employment. We hope our innovation will create a better future for the next generation in Somalia.
Our Story
Power OffGrid was founded in 2017 to provide smart solar solutions and clean energy in Jowhar, Somalia for rural off-grid and hard-to-reach communities in the HirShabelle State of Somalia and the outskirts of Mogadishu where the electricity is expensive.
Our Founder
Our Founder and CEO Guled Wiliq has over 15 years of experience in water infrastructure development, hydropower, real estate investment, and renewable energy.
Guled’s journey began in 2017 while volunteering to raise funds in building & designing a solar pump to help a struggling farmer in Jowhar City, Hirshabelle State of Somalia (which was his post-graduate thesis).
Driven by his passion to innovate, Guled’s first attempt to develop a sustainable irrigation system was postponed as a result of a delay in the project schedule. That didn’t stop him from seizing up to finish what will soon become a sustainable development initiative by introducing renewable energy access across the rural and urban communities in many parts of Somalia.
After completing the farmer’s project, Guled learned that powering off-grid communities could have a great positive impact on their livelihoods. He has developed disruptive and innovative affordable smart hybrid renewable energy and first time in the world a PayGo asset financing systems for unbanked communities via Goat4kWh, where pastoralist and farmers could exchange their livestock for capital to finance their electrification; thus, increasing access to electricity, adequate clean water, and clean cooking for 1000s of households in Somalia. He is also certified as a Global Juror of SDG11.
What’s Driving Us
Somalia has one of the lowest electrification rates and the most expensive electricity tariffs in the world. Electricity should not be a luxury only for the well-off in Somalia but a daily basic necessity for all humankind that is reliable, accessible, and affordable.
An average persons’ energy expenditures in Somalia consist of $1.5-2/kwh/day, $1/day for ice, and $1/day for charcoal.
Women are the engine of the Somali economy but are shackled by a lack of access to reliable and expensive electricity. Average women in Somalia spend more than 8 hours preparing food, cleaning and caring for others, etc.
Lack of access to electricity is one of the reasons people in Somalia are unable to break the cycle of extreme poverty, which keeps them living in low standards, utilizing harmful high emission sources of energy (such as kerosene lamps). Power OffGrid, as a pioneer and leader in rural electrification in Somalia, continues to provide affordable and hybrid decentralized smart renewable energy services to our customers to promote a healthier environment at home and light their homes at night so that their kids to play, do their homework, and succeed in education. Then, families will spend less time on household chores, like cooking, washing clothes, etc., and will be able to save more money to increase their income level and improve their livelihood.
