Deadline: 25-Jun-23
Siemens Stiftung on behalf of the Smart Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA) consortium, invites local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania to apply for the “2nd SESA Call for Entrepreneurs 2023”.
The call is looking for entrepreneurs with expertise in addressing the continent’s energy access challenges with a focus on rural and off-grid communities.
The SESA project, funded by the European Commission is operative across nine African countries with local and international partners, testing and validating sustainable energy solutions and business models that are replicable and generate local opportunities for economic development.
This call focuses on selected technologies that have been tested by SESA partners and presents promising opportunities to scale up by local entrepreneurs in the four countries. Interested enterprises should be operational in domains such as solar irrigation technologies in rural communities, waste-to-energy solutions to improve clean cooking, and solar cold chain technologies for both peri-urban and rural communities among other related technical fields.
Smart Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA) is a Research and Innovation Project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon2020 programme and coordinated by the ICLEI European Secretariat (a non-profit entity based in Brussels). SESA was launched in October 2021 with a duration of 48 months and is being implemented in nine African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania. The SESA project is developing and testing sustainable energy solutions as well as promising business models to accelerate the green transition and the achievement of energy access goals in Africa.
SESA’s main objective is to support a diversity of affordable solutions that deliver access to reliable, efficient and sustainable energy services for all, creating business opportunities that can directly contribute to development. Selected innovations within the three areas of focus:
- access to energy,
- productive use of energy and
- circular economy will be developed and initially tested in a modular demonstration case in Kenya and based on initial learnings, various aspects of the tested innovations will be validated in four countries: Ghana, South Africa, Malawi and Morocco.
The learnings from these validation countries will strengthen the overall replicability of the technologies as well as business concepts. To initiate the replication process, four additional countries (Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania) will be supported to adopt the technologies with the most replication potential. The uptake of new solutions and business models requires close cooperation between local start-ups, innovative entrepreneurs, industry, city administrations and research and academic institutions. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can play a key role in this process and thus, they are looking for Expressions of Interests (EOI) by suitable enterprises and innovators that are interested in offering their services & products to explore the replication and scale-up of selected technologies and promising business models as part of the SESA project.
Funding Information
- Each selected enterprise will receive between € 50,000 to €100,000 for the design, implementation, and evaluation of submitted replication projects via service agreements. After selection, they will have the opportunity to participate in the SESA Incubator Programme run by SESA partner Smart Innovation Norway (SIN). The programme includes mentorship, coaching, and access to networks of industry experts and potential investors.
Eligibility Criteria
- Certain minimum criteria need to be met and only those applications which meet the minimum criteria will be considered.
- Your enterprise must be registered and operationally active in Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda or Tanzania;
- Your enterprise must have officially been in operation for at least three years;
- Your enterprise must have generated revenues and provide financial statements including income statement and balance sheets for the last two years (2022 and 2021);
- There are no pending litigations against your enterprise or members of its management team;
- Proof of previously similar work done in country Women-led and women-owned businesses are particularly encouraged to apply.
- Please note: The SESA Call for Entrepreneurs 2023 will focus on SMEs operationally active in Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania as first priority. However, this does not preclude applications from SMEs registered and operative in other African countries as long as the technological requirements are met.
For more information, visit SESA.