Democratization of Energy in Africa: Social Entrepreneurship for Socio-Economic Sustainability

The co-founder of Open Energy Labs (OEL) in the UK was an entrepreneur with an Afro-Caribbean heritage. As a young graduate, he had observed that solutions produced by The Global North are lacking understanding of the realities of Africa. Thus, the entrepreneur aimed to train students in Africa to generate their own electricity using locally suitable solutions so that they could improve their social wellbeing and economic conditions. The case is based on primary data collected from a social entrepreneur in 2021, active in Africa. It allows learning about socio-economic sustainability through a social entrepreneur’s personal experience. The concept of social enterprise (SE) serves as an analytical framework for the case. The case includes well-known business models that social entrepreneurs usually employ, but also sheds light on the newly emerging Business to Business to Government to Beneficiary (B2B2G2Beneficiary) business model, in which international companies with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budgets or international organizations can become donors for governments to maximize the social impact on local beneficiaries. The case covers social inclusion within the society through the social entrepreneur’s product and services. While doing this, it shows how cities and communities can be sustainable (addressing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11), while reducing inequalities and polarization among countries (SDG 10) through affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), leading to more acceptable living conditions for all.