Greater than 30 years in the past, within the mountain village of Mbem in northwest Cameroon, the moon and stars within the evening sky had been the one mild younger Jude Numfor knew after the sundown. Electrical energy had not but reached his rural group.
“There was one particular person within the village with a petroleum generator and a small tv,” Numfor says. “When he turned it on, all the kids would run to his home and peep by way of the window.”
That reminiscence grew to become the spark for Numfor’s mission: to convey electrical energy to rural communities like his hometown. To perform his objective, in 2006 he cofounded Wi-fi Gentle and Energy, since renamed Renewable Power Innovators Cameroon, and he serves as its CEO.
REI Cameroon designs, installs, and maintains photo voltaic minigrids for rural electrification. The minigrids use photovoltaic expertise and battery-energy storage techniques to generate electrical energy at 50 hertz. The electrical energy is distributed by way of sensible meters.
In 2017 the corporate obtained a grant from IEEE Sensible Village to fund the growth of REI’s minigrid operations and refine its enterprise mannequin. Sensible Village helps initiatives and organizations bringing electrical energy and academic and employment alternatives to distant communities worldwide. This system is supported by IEEE societies and donations to the IEEE Basis.
The partnership has led to a collaboration creating open supply metering, a free, community-driven means of monitoring vitality utilization. In contrast to proprietary utility meters, the system permits customers, researchers, and utilities to view, customise, and confirm how information is collected, guaranteeing transparency in billing, consumption monitoring, and grid administration.
Sensible Village’s help has been pivotal, Numfor says: “It’s not nearly cash. We share concepts, we get recommendation, and we have now made mates. Entrepreneurship is lonely, however with the [Smart Village] group, it’s totally different.”
From teenage tinkerer to entrepreneur
Numfor’s first expertise of life with electrical energy was in 2001, after shifting in with a missionary household within the small village of Allat. They used photo voltaic panels to energy their entire dwelling—an unimaginable luxurious in Mbem. “I might watch TV, eat ice cream, and activate lights,” he says. “It made me want my brothers in Mbem had the identical alternative.”
Numfor’s curiosity about electrical energy was ignited when a motion-sensor photo voltaic mild within the household’s dwelling stopped working. He tinkered with the system to search out out why. “My missionary household informed me to play with it like a toy,” he says, laughingly. “I changed the lifeless battery with a motorbike battery and was capable of convey the facility again for the evening.”
Jude Numfor [right] testing a chargeable photo voltaic lantern, which aimed to interchange hazardous kerosene lamps—identified regionally as “bush lamps.”REI Cameroon
His missionary dad and mom inspired Numfor to review expertise and engineering on his personal, as not one of the nation’s universities supplied photo voltaic vitality instructional packages on the time. They constructed him a library and stocked it with books on engineering, administration, and entrepreneurship.
In 2006, armed along with his new information, Numfor launched Wi-fi Gentle and Energy with a pal, Ludwig Teichgraber. The nonprofit aimed to interchange hazardous kerosene lamps—identified regionally as “bush lamps”—with rechargeable photo voltaic lanterns.
These photo voltaic lanterns—referred to as “mild packs”—had been constructed regionally by Numfor and a workforce of 11 younger Cameroonians utilizing PVC pipes, nickel-metal hydride batteries, and LED bulbs. Households rented the lamps for a small payment, swapping discharged lamps for totally charged ones at solar-powered charging kiosks once they ran out of energy. The kiosks then recharged the depleted lamps, making them obtainable for the following swap. “The photo voltaic lantern was safer and cleaner, plus it gave kids an opportunity to learn at evening,” Numfor explains. “Folks liked them.”
Between 2006 and 2010, his workforce replicated the mannequin throughout a number of villages. However when the worldwide monetary disaster hit in 2008, donor help dwindled, forcing the group to evolve. “We pivoted from being an NGO to a business enterprise,” he says. “That’s how REI was born.”
Constructing photo voltaic minigrids to serve group wants
The brand new firm’s objective was to maneuver away from the lanterns and towards full electrification of communities. Villagers’ aspirations modified, Numfor says, as they now needed to energy their TVs, music techniques, and cellphones. In response, in 2010, REI developed one of many first photo voltaic minigrids in West Africa. Utilizing regionally procured parts, the prototype equipped regular energy to 6 households. The minigrid system used 12 123-watt photo voltaic photovoltaic panels manufactured by Sharp, 16 12-volt 100 ampere-hour computerized achieve management lead acid batteries, and a Xantrex cost controller and inverter. Domestically sourced wood mild poles had been erected to distribute electrical energy all through the village. REI charged every family a payment for the electrical energy.
“It was a product-market-fit second,” Numfor says. “Folks instantly requested, ‘When can we get this, too?’” The word-of-mouth, grassroots progress caught the eye of worldwide companions. Numfor linked with Sensible Village and in 2017, REI Cameroon obtained its first seed grant from this system.
With that funding, Numfor was capable of develop organically and appeal to further grants, together with one from the U.S. Commerce Improvement Company (USTDA), in partnership with the U.S. Division of Power’s Nationwide Renewable Power Laboratory. REI has since expanded to 6 villages, offering energy to greater than 1,000 households and companies. With a devoted workforce of 16 folks, the corporate operates in a number of areas of the nation, every with distinctive terrain, languages, and cultural dynamics.
“It wasn’t straightforward,” he acknowledges. “I’m not an educational particular person—I needed to study all the things by doing. [Smart Village] helped me construction the mission and develop as an entrepreneur.”
At this time, Numfor pays it ahead by sharing his Sensible Village expertise and mentoring new entrepreneurs.
Launching a coalition for sensible metering
Minigrids can’t function effectively with out clarifying working guidelines to make sure high quality service necessities and shopper safety, whereas additionally enabling dependable and efficient monitoring of the system, Numfor says. “We have to understand how energy is getting used, detect issues early, and handle the minigrid from a distance,” he explains.
Current business smart-meter suppliers supply restricted and proprietary options. One main supplier left the market, making their expertise infrastructure out of date. “It’s dangerous for a whole sector to depend upon a couple of firms for such a essential expertise,” Numfor says.
In 2025, with the assistance of the Sensible Village technical group, Numfor convened a consortium of open-source energy advocates, together with the Africa Mini-Grid Builders Affiliation, EnAccess, Power IOT, and NESL. The objective was to develop an open sensible metering system that’s accessible, clear, and sustainable for all vitality suppliers.
“These organizations are collaborating as Open Superior Metering Infrastructure [OpenAMI], which is about giving management again to the individuals who ship the vitality,” he says.
Scaling for influence
Numfor’s ardour has grown from bringing mild to native rural communities to bringing mild to his whole nation. Simply 54 % of Cameroon’s residents have entry to electrical energy, based on the Worldwide Power Company. For Numfor, the problem is not only technological—it’s social and financial as effectively. “Electrical energy is crucial enabler of training and financial progress right this moment,” he says. “When you will have energy, you unlock all the things else.”
“Electrical energy modified my life. Now I need to be sure that each baby can develop up with that very same mild.” —Jude Numfor
Throughout the villages the place REI has put in sustainable electrical energy options, small companies are flourishing. Barbershops hum with group chatter, meals distributors can protect perishables, and entrepreneurs run firms equivalent to phone-charging stations and small mills. “Some villages even have laundromats now,” Numfor says proudly. “Electrical energy creates jobs and adjustments mindsets.”
Nonetheless, it has been a bumpy journey. It wasn’t till 2025 that REI obtained its official authorization (license) from Cameroon’s authorities to provide and distribute electrical energy in off-grid areas utilizing photo voltaic minigrids. This was a serious milestone as a result of REI is likely one of the first non-public enterprises within the nation to obtain such authorization. “We had been caught between pilot initiatives and progress,” he explains. “Our initiatives had been profitable, and there was group demand for extra, however to develop, we wanted buyers who require authorized ensures earlier than committing funds. Now we will scale up and appeal to buyers.”
REI plans to develop its attain dramatically, starting with 134 new villages recognized by way of a feasibility examine supported by the USTDA. Their long-term objective is to affect 760 villages throughout Cameroon by 2031.
Whereas authorization opens doorways, financing stays considered one of REI’s greatest challenges. “The minigrid area doesn’t appeal to enterprise capitalists simply,” Numfor notes. “Our return on funding is beneath 15 %, so it’s not a typical tech startup mannequin. The true return right here is the influence” on the group.
He hopes to draw buyers who perceive that entry to electrical energy drives training, well being care, and entrepreneurship. “There are folks on the market who need to make significant change,” he says. “We simply want to attach with them. Whenever you electrify a village, you by no means know who the following innovator will probably be. Possibly it’s one other child like me, trying by way of a window, dreaming.”
Discovering expert employees is one other problem, Numfor says. To handle this, REI developed an intensive recruitment and coaching course of. “It used to take years to search out the precise folks,” he says. “Now, we will establish who matches our firm tradition inside six months.” Numfor’s spouse, Angela Taliklong, who joined the enterprise in 2010, now oversees administration and human assets.
A brighter Cameroon and past
Numfor gives easy phrases of recommendation to different impact-driven entrepreneurs: Maintain shifting.
“One in all my errors early on was making an attempt to be excellent,” he says. “I used to be spending time bettering prototypes as an alternative of accelerating the variety of our mission installations and scaling what number of communities we might electrify. You should maintain momentum. Don’t wait till all the things is ideal earlier than you progress ahead.”
That mindset, rooted in resilience and experimentation, has outlined his journey. Rajan Kapur, president of Sensible Village, says Numfor is a “shining instance” of this system’s imaginative and prescient: “scalable and enduring influence by way of native entrepreneurs, native procurement, and group engagement primarily based on using IEEE expertise in underserved communities.”
With the continuing Sensible Village partnership, Numfor is decided to convey mild and alternative to each nook of Cameroon, and past. He already has launched REI Nigeria.
“Electrical energy modified my life,” he says. “Now I need to be sure that each baby can develop up with that very same mild.”
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