Energy Generation

Energy Generation has the ambition to reveal young Africans’ resourcefulness and inventiveness, most of whom are left without professional prospects. We want to help in solving the issue of labour market access for the young African generation through the deployment of "made in Africa" technological solutions.

Energy Generation is a fast growing and innovative pan-African organization based in Lomé and Accra that provides young Africans with training, entrepreneurship, and technological support, with a specialization on access to energy, as well as health and agribusiness issues. 

Energy Generation is revolutionizing access to education, support services and funding in Africa, and building a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem where young Africans can thrive and grow game-changing businesses. Our vision is to enable the emergence of a new African generation that is empowered to solve the challenge of human dignity on the African continent and beyond.

The problem that we are trying to solve is unemployment and underemployment for the young generation in Africa. According to the African Development Bank (AFDB) in 2016, out of Africa's nearly 420 million youth aged 15-35, one-third are unemployed and discouraged, another third are vulnerably employed, and only one in six is in wage employment. African youth face roughly double the unemployment rate of adults, with significant variation by country. While 10 to 12 million youth enter the workforce each year, only 3 million formal jobs are created.

Access to the job market is very complicated for the younger generation and recruiters are struggling to find trained and competent people to join the developing companies. However, the African youth still does not have concrete local solutions for being trained and supported for developing innovative initiatives and bridge the skill gap. Indeed, young entrepreneurs often fail as the education system, the entrepreneurship supporting structures or the funding opportunities are not well adapted to their reality and needs. 

Energy Generation carries out three main activities that covers all the value chain of innovation and that focus on capacity building for young people. 

The Education program is based on two main programs: EG Technical Institute that aims to train youth on renewable energy technical skills and management skills (10-month training) and Business Schools (Energy, Healthcare and Agri) that aim to train youth on innovation and entrepreneurship (2-year training).

Our training programs have been carefully designed based on MIT’s Design Thinking Approach. We offer an Energy Tech Program which gives project leaders the opportunity to create a minimum viable product (MVP), define a viable business model (Proof of Concept) and to create and manage an operational startup. The program includes the EG Tech Technology Readiness Level and the EG Tech Manufacturing Readiness Level. 

Energy Generation, in collaboration with the MIT D-Lab’s team, also has established a makerspace called the Energy Tech Lab with both training programs for students and incubation programs for technological startups. The students have unlimited access to a fabrication and prototyping facility focused on energy access and health, agriculture and youth issues. 

The Energy Space supports both technology and business development of innovative solutions.

The target population are students eager to learn, residents in Africa, aged from 17 to 45 (Bachelor BI, Bachelor BII and MBA level), who are looking for an internationally recognized training program with a specialization in the field of energy, agriculture or health, combining technical and entrepreneurial skills. The beneficiaries of our programs are also people who seek technical and professional training in the installation and maintenance of solar systems and in entrepreneurship.

In order to better understand their needs, Energy Generation carries out satisfaction survey after each course, as well as individual interviews with students to assess their perception on the past year/quarter and find out how they experienced it and rate the quality of the training. For instance, based on student feedback our education programs were changed from a one-year to a two-year training, noticing the pre-incubation period was longer than expected. 

Energy Generation is a human centered platform offering individuals opportunities to unlock and express their full creative potential. Our programs train entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, but also future executives from the private or public, who will participate in the economic development and thus themselves generate employment opportunities for young people. 

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The solution we propose is perfectly aligned with the Challenge as it supports the emergence and structuration of SMEs, bridging the financing gap, and trains young Africans to match the employer demand. Energy Generation is providing technical, managerial and entrepreneurial training and support to a currently underserved community in Africa so that they can upskill and design, monetise and grow endogenous projects in response to problems they are personally experiencing. The creation of “made in Africa” technological and digital innovations in the field of energy, health and agribusiness will generate suitable and sustainable solutions, as well as create impactful jobs. 

Energy Generation's supports high-end local technological solutions to face problems on a local level. We accompany entrepreneurs to develop prototypes for their business ideas through an elaborated and integrated model (from design to mass market commercialization), notably through the EnergyTech Program. The program leverages technology development methods established by NASA and the DoD to offer students a step-by-step approach that blends industry methods with frugal innovation and the lean-startup method. 

By contrast to other training programs offered in Africa: the African Leadership University (ALU) in Rwanda and Mauritius and Asheshi in Ghana, for instance, which both form entrepreneurs, our program combines theory and practice, blending traditional Academia with Business Incubation and Prototyping. We are building an innovative approach to education, with a focus on hardware solutions in specific sectors: renewable and clean energy, health and agribusiness. Moreover, Energy Generation is a pan-African school offering an internationally recognized diploma in partnership with the College de Paris and a unique programme based on MIT’s Design Thinking method. 

Innovation is ubiquitous in Energy Generation's methods. The school fees are based on an innovative approach of free and conscious participation by the future students, which does not mean the tuition fees are free. Through this approach, we want to make our programs accessible to the greatest number, without making concessions on excellence. The flexible cost of our trainings also makes our solution different and attractive compared to competitors. 

The technology that we aim to develop to power our solution is an online platform, in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, to increase the reach and access to our programs. 

Moreover, the other tech aspect of our solution is that it is based on specific tools which allow students to easily develop an elaborate technologically and innovative prototype. During the two years of training, the students have unlimited access to our makerspace, a state-of-the art manufacturing workshop. The workshop provides CNC tools and machine tools usually reserved for professionals. 

Our makerspace is divided into different spaces:
• an IT space
• an electronics and assembly area
• a training area
• a machines area

The machinery area is equipped with the most recent equipment, recommended by the Fab Foundation, such as:

• a 3D printer - Original Prusa i3 MK3
• a 3D scanner - Sense 2 Black Handheld
• a laser cutter - Orion Motor Tech CO2 60W

Other equipment will be added in the future depending on the students specific needs. 

Our teachers, trainers and interveners are available to help the students master the use of all these machines and exploit their full potential.

Regarding the project of online platform, we strongly believe online educational platform in Africa have a real impact on education access. For instance, an online educational application such as Arifu in Kenya is continuously growing and improving lives. 

Regarding the tools in our makerspace, our technology has been tested during the sanitary crisis, which has paralyzed our economies in a new ways. We have been working to produce hospital equipment using 3D printing through:
- The production of low cost and “made in Africa” ventilators
- The production of protective masks and visors for nursing staff

In conjunction with this, we are trying to find energy solutions that will allow for their use in areas without access to electricity.

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Our solution has an impact on unemployment and underemployment for young Africans by:

1) giving them the opportunity to create new and good jobs locally;

2) bridging the skill gap between the competencies required by the recruiters and the level of technicality currently offered by the workforce. 

We are challenged with finding novel solutions for integrating business incubation and prototyping approaches in our programs because of our location in a developing region that requires frugal innovation, and in which entrepreneurs have limited technical training.

Energy Generation develops a real support program from idea to commercialization for entrepreneurs' and intrapreneurs' product/service development, from training to job placement for future workers. 

At the same time, Africa is facing huge challenges in terms of access to electricity and clean energy, access to universal healthcare and access to food and nutrition. Most of our project holders develop ingenious solutions for poor populations of the continent who have little to no access to many basic services. 

The need to resolve these problems is pressing, and solving them in Africa can contribute to development and generate employment opportunities for young people, whether it be through an independent activity or within a company. For this, it is necessary to have the human capital required, trained and ready to meet these challenges.

Energy Generation has been offering its training and support to entrepreneurs since 2016. Our solution is currently serving :

1) 14 young people from 12 African countries - Business School 2 year program (1st year)
2) 60 students - Technical Institute (4 trainings per year of 10 months, 15 per cohort)
3) 23 entrepreneurs - Energy Space 

Total current : 97 people 

Our solution in one year will be serving :

1) 200 students in Togo and 100 students in Ghana - Business School 2 year program
2) 14 in Togo for their 2nd year of BS 
3) 120 students - Technical Institute 
4) 30 entrepreneurs 

Total one year : 464 people

Our solution in five years will be serving :
1) 500 students in Togo, 300 students in Ghana, 200 students in Kenya - Business School 2 year program 
2) 180 students - Technical Institute
3) 320 entrepreneurs - Incubator/maker space Togo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria

Total 5 years :  1500 people

In addition to these main activities, Energy generation regularly organizes events, mini-training and conferences which reach nearly 600 people.

Moreover, we are proud to have a community of 15000 people who follow us daily on social networks and 3600 people who receive our newsletters.

As mentioned above, we are planning on reaching many more students through the project of an online platform. 

We are currently at a very important phase of our development as we are working to significantly increase our impact. Our five year vision is to impact the lives of at least one thousand and five hundred young Africans  (potentially many more with an online platform) coming from the whole continent by unlocking their entrepreneurship potential and giving them the opportunity to gain accurate business and technical skills. The aim is to have at least 1000 students on three different campus and 300 entrepreneurs spread between five different incubators, by replicating the model developed in Togo of African technological and business hub. The strategic plan to achieve this objective is to:

- Develop the number of training centers (one additional) and incubators (three additional) in West and East Africa and in Francophone and Anglophone-speaking African countries. 
- Increase the budget for targeted communication (reach at least 10% turnover) to recruit additional students for Bachelor, MBA, as well as the Technical Institute. 
- Growing the number of partnerships with state/federal governments, public   local actors and private local and international companies. 
- Organize or co-organize additional call for projects and contests (at least two per year) to source innovative ideas in the sector of energy, health and agribusiness.

The current existing barriers to accomplish our goals in the next year are mostly linked to the pandemic crisis, which could delay the opening of our schools in Togo and Ghana. However, we have already managed to adapt our curriculum in 2020 by proposing online lessons for current students. 

The additional barriers to reach our target in the next five years are: 

- Structural and operational : need for additional, quickly operational, qualified human resources and for the organization to upscale through improved internal strategic planning and legal structuring. 
- Attractiveness and visibility of our offer : our education and incubation programs need to be adapted to the market needs, show proven and successful results, and be well-marketed to attract an increasing number of students and entrepreneurs. 
- Financial : lack of potential funds, external (grants) and internal (school fees), to replicate our offer in new countries, equip our training and incubation centers and recruit additional staff.
- Legal : delay in some African countries to open new training and incubation centers due to long administrative process. 

The previously identified barriers will be overcome with the following means: 

- Structural and operational : recruit additional, qualified staff based on our current and partners' network to identify the best talents. Partner with well-established and bigger organizations to benefit from technical assistance programs and advice on strategy to scale-up. 
- Attractiveness and visibility of our offer :  develop our network and pan-african knowledge of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as recognition, by participating and organizing challenges/call for proposals. Increase our budget for the marketing student recruitment campaigns to target a growing number of young Africans. Participate in events, press conferences to gain in visibility. 
- Financial :  partner with financial institutions, participate to challenges, calls for proposal for external funding. Build upon our programs' recognition and attractiveness to have more students paying a significant amount for their school fees, thus showing their trust in the quality of the service provided.
- Legal : partner with local organizations proposing education and incubation programs to be helped through the legal process or supplement their current offer with additional training and incubation modules. 

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2020 - Number of employees : 12
Women : 7
Men : 5
Non - Permanent : 3

Note: The founder and president, Astria Fataki is not considered here as an employee but works 100% of their time on the solution.

Energy Generation was created following the personal experience of Astria Fataki. While moving forward with a project of innovative rural electrification in Africa, things were getting more and more frustrating as she realised that most, if not all of the ressources (financial, technical and human capital) that were necessary to address the challenge of universal access to energy in Africa were scarce. Our team is composed of people who are both passionate about development issues in Africa and great result-oriented professional experts in their field. Motivation to foster change for a better future is our shared driving force. All partners have experience working in French and English- speaking African countries.

Brief presentation of Managers of the different departments: 

- Astria FATAKI, President - 8 years of experience in project management and setting up public-private partnerships in the energy sector in Africa. Expertise in the development of early stage entrepreneurial projects in the energy sector.
- Paul CAIRNS, Technical Manager - 9 years of experience in due diligence and accompaniment of technical entrepreneurial projects.
- Lucie BEAURAIN, Entrepreneurship Manager - 4 years experience  in project management and support to impactful entrepreneurs.
- Rémi ROLAND, Academic & Partnership Manager - 3 years experience in project management and institutional relations
- Noémie METAIS, International Development and Fundraising Manager -  3 years experience in managing of donor funds and projects. 
- Odjouman ALLAGBE, Communication Manager - 2 years of experience in the implementation of communication strategies for entrepreneurs

Energy Generation (EG) has already been working with major actors in the innovation and energy sector acting as advisors, funding providers trainers, capacity builders for EG team, trainer for students, training equipment providers, events co-organizers. 

• Innovation ecosystem: Village Capital and associated network members like Growth Mozaic (Ghana), Suguba (Mali), and Ventures platform (Nigeria)

EG services brings an added value to the innovation ecosystem. Indeed, we are mass training youth for being active players in the ecosystem. We are working on early stage projects and collaborate with other innovation players for more mature stages. 

• Global companies: Schneider Electric, ENGIE, EDF

Private sector has to be implied at all stages of the training and innovation process future employers of the students and/or as they are future investors in startups. They are already implied in our program as trainer, equipment provider and funder.

• Public Institutions: Togolese Ministry of Mining and Energy, Togolese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication, European Union, African Biofuel and Renewable Energy Company

Youth employment and energy access are part of public sector tasks and we work closely with public institutions on these topics. 

• Associations: URBIS Foundation, Akon Lighting Africa

Associations and NGOs are also playing a major role for fostering sustainable development in Africa and we are open to collaborate with them. 

We are also currently partnering with the MIT D-Lab’s team to establish the Energy Tech Lab, our makerspace facility.

Our diploma certification are delivered in partnership with the Collège de Paris.

The organisation's mission is itself social and environmental in nature: to revolutionize access to education, support services and funding, and build a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

Energy Generation targets low and middle-income young Africans looking for quality training on the African continent. We provide them locally with specific expertise and working methods, based on international standards and of an exceptional quality at a minor cost. 

The financial model of Energy Generation is sustainable thanks to the school fees, as well as inclusive of marginalized populations, by providing  scholarships for young Africans who wouldn't be able to afford the programs. 

In recent years, our model has been mainly based on grants and private funding. Tuition fees also generate some revenue.

Energy Generation also regularly positions itself as a service provider for various partners, which enables it to remunerate itself (organisation of competitions, training, workshops, report writing, etc.).

In view of our scale-up, we want to move towards an economic model that is less dependent on donors. For this, we are already working on the evolution of our association in a social business.

Our objective is to create a seed fund to invest in the promising startups we incubate, to enable them to develop while having a return on investment.

Also, we are aiming for a very large increase in the number of students enrolled in our programmes from the start of the 2020 academic year. To achieve this, we have moved to larger campuses. This year we are testing a tuition fees policy based on the “Pay what you want” principle. The results of this trial on our business model will be analyzed at the end of the student recruitment process.

Becoming a Solver and joining the Solve entrepreneurs community is a must and an evidence for Energy Generation because of our solution strong social impact and its potential to scale with Solve's support. Moreover, we are strongly convinced of the numerous benefits for our organization if we are supported by the MIT's ecosystem, due to its academic excellency, track track-record and expertise in technological innovation. 

The nine months of personalized support from Solve staff can help us on the structural and operational barrier, helping us to fine-tune and analyze in detail our business model, scale our impact and take our organization to the next level, as it has been proven in the past with former Solvers. The 10,000$ grant will help Energy Generation in acquiring additional technological equipments for the beginning of the school year and the 75,000$ grant from the GM prize to expand our solution in other African countries and therefore impact the future of more young Africans. Moreover, we will be able to increase our visibility thanks to your important worldwide exposure and attract more students by working together on our education programs quality, already based on the MIT Design Thinking Method, as well as incubation programs, through your input on business and entrepreneurship training.

We need human resources to implement and operate the schools and strategic and operational advice in order to build a resilient and solid structure to achieve our objectives. 

However, we also need support on our governance and structure of Energy Generation to become a social enterprise in order to be able to raise funds from social investors.

We want to consolidate our experience and improve the services offered to project holders. Indeed, we are actively working and need technical assistance on the implementation of innovative funding mechanisms via a seed fund to improve support to entrepreneurs and enable them to grow beyond their proof of concept.

The financial support of our partners is key, as well as the technical input to get constructive feedback, mentorship on various aspects, both operational and strategic.

We are strongly convinced that winning the Solve challenge will bring us invaluable support ! 

We are currently working on a potential partnership with the MIT D-Lab, world leading academic and innovative institution, to receive guidance and expertise on the implementation of our makerspace as a fabrication and prototyping facility and on the creation of online programs. 

We are also open to potential opportunities of collaboration with other Solve members to incorporate their solution to expand and improve our training and incubation offer. For example, we are currently exploring a partnership with Path Port, a finalist of the MIT Covid-19 Challenge, to work on modules produced by 3D print for transporting pathogens to reduce the risk of their deterioration and increase the testing capacity in remote areas.

Our solution is qualified for the General Motors Prize on Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship by offering professionally-oriented education and incubation programs to young Africans to access and create good jobs. Energy Generation's offer is unique within the incubator ecosystem on the African continent, accompanying entrepreneurs in business and hardware development and working on the gap between labour supply and demand. It is one of the few training and incubation hubs in Africa which is bilingual and sector specialized : energy, health and agriculture. 

Our solution is offered in a challenging labour market where youth unemployment is twice as higher than adult unemployment. Moreover, it is an increasing issue as it is estimated that by 2030, one fifth of the global labour force – and nearly one third of the global youth labour force, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2019 – will be from Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic will likely exacerbate the trend, affecting informal workers, which represent 95% of youth employment in Africa according to ILO, as well as formal workers.