Start-Up  Expands  Clean Energy, Digital Access in Rural Africa

Kenya, 11 December 2025 - In Kenya and across sub-Saharan Africa, more than 600 million people live without reliable electricity, while another 300 million remain digitally disconnected. Frequent power outages disrupt businesses, students struggle to complete homework, and many communities continue to be excluded from the digital economy.

Amid these challenges, a new wave of women innovators is emerging, developing homegrown solutions to address the continent’s power and connectivity gaps.

One such innovators is Ochieng Quinter, the founder of Chargebyte, who stands at the forefront of Kenya’s technological revolution. Through her company, she is transforming how communities across East Africa access electricity and internet services by combining solar innovation, local manufacturing, and community empowerment.

Quinter recalls noticing that most traditional solutions relied heavily on expensive imported technologies. This dependence not only strained local budgets but also created vulnerability to foreign supply chains, limiting long-term sustainability and local economic impact. That observation sparked a pivotal question:“What if Africa could manufacture its own solutions?”

Guided by this vision, Quinter has transformed Chargebyte into a showcase of African-led innovation.“Chargebyte sets up solar-hybrid charging and WiFi stations in busy urban and peri-urban locations across Kenya and Rwanda. Each station supports 200 to 500 people daily, delivering essential phone charging and internet connectivity exactly where it’s needed,” she says.

By leveraging locally made, affordable technology, Chargebyte is doing more than supplying power and connectivity—it is uplifting communities, generating employment, and proving that African solutions can address African challenges.

What distinguishes Chargebyte is its focus on local assembly and manufacturing, which reduces costs by 30–40 percent compared to imported alternatives. The company operates a diversified revenue model, earning $350–750 per station each month through consumer charging fees, Business-to-Business partnerships (B2B), impact advertising, and government contracts.

Its IoT-enabled technology ( physical devices embedded with sensors) monitors every charging session, WiFi connection, and content interaction in real-time. This provides verified impact data while enabling predictive maintenance to ensure maximum uptime, transforming Chargebyte from a simple hardware provider into a data-driven platform for understanding and serving underserved communities.