Addis to get 2,000 solar powered kiosks

Addis Ababa Small and Micro Enterprise organization has developed a plan to construct 2,000 kiosks which can generate electricity from sunlight in the ten sub cities of the capital.
The kiosks which will be administered by the Enterprise’s Work Place Development and Administration Agency will potentially create job opportunities for 4,000 people. Kiosk operators will able to use the power during the day and continue operating late into the night.
The construction of the kiosks will start this fiscal year. It has not been revealed yet how much the construction will cost. The idea of the kiosks came to a reality after a long-term study by Addis Ababa University.
Side roads, bus and train station, junctures, areas near to school and collages, private and government companies are the locations that the agency has planned to construct the kiosks.
The kiosks will be on four square meters of land. They will be given to entrepreneurs who submit their business proposals to the agency. The agency will then select the best proposals for working in the mini-shops.
Fast food, electronic maintenance, books, cosmetics, cultural and traditional clothes, will be sold in the kiosks that will be made with sheet metal.
The construction of the kiosk and the installation of the solar panel will be given soon to companies after the approval of the budget by the city council.
Asmerom Berehan, Work Place Development and Administration Agency head told Capital that the kiosk will be given to the entrepreneurs on a rental based agreement.
“We don’t want them to stick in the kiosk forever; they must leave it after five years to let others do another business in the shops. Sitting without a job is not the needed subject to get the kiosk one must bring a good business plan that benefits them and they city.’’
“We are planning to use a business model that enables a local entrepreneur to sell products and provide solar powered services to their community. It is a commercial plan which stations solar-powered units in kiosks in Addis’s center and outskirt urban areas, thus creating a triple impact: social, environmental and economic.
Currently over 9,000 metal shops, nicknamed after former Mayor, Arkebe Oqubay, are working as mini business under the title of small and micro-enterprise.
On July 15th, first Solar Kiosk was officially opened near Lake Langano. The portable solar shop was designed in Germany by Graft Architects and sells energy, products, tools and services.
Solar kiosks are also opening in Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana and Ghana.