An estimated 85 million Nigerians, more than 40% of the population, do not have access to grid electricity. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that across African countries, post-harvest losses could be worth up to $4 billion and enough to feed 48 million people. In Nigeria, up to 40% of all food produced is wasted, largely due to a lack of access to cold storage. Even where people have access to the grid, power is unreliable and back-up diesel generators are ubiquitous. Nigeria’s installed diesel generator set capacity exceeds the power generation capacity of the country’s grid, but generators are more expensive for customers and harmful to the environment.

Koolboks offers an innovative solar-powered refrigeration solution to communities facing power supply challenges in Lagos, and are targeting fish traders, the majority of whom are women. Koolboks customers pay in instalments using pay-as-you-go (PAYG) technology which enables mobile money payments and GSM-based machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity to remotely control and monitor refrigerators’ usage, billing and performance. Koolboks is currently expanding operations to East Africa intending to scale the product in 12 markets in Nigeria/

Koolboks is one of the start-ups supported by the GSMA Innovation Fund for Digital Urban Services, which was launched in May 2021. This initiative is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and supported by the GSMA and its members.

To learn more about the GSMA Innovation Fund, click here.