Greater than 30 years in the past, within the mountain village of Mbem in northwest Cameroon, the moon and stars within the night time sky had been the one gentle 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 youngsters would run to his home and peep by means of the window.”
That reminiscence turned the spark for Numfor’s mission: to convey electrical energy to rural communities like his hometown. To perform his aim, in 2006 he cofounded Wi-fi Gentle and Energy, since renamed Renewable Energy Innovators Cameroon, and he serves as its CEO.
REI Cameroon designs, installs, and maintains photo voltaic minigrids for rural electrification. The minigrids use photovoltaic know-how and battery-energy storage methods to generate electrical energy at 50 hertz. The electrical energy is distributed by means of smart meters.
In 2017 the corporate obtained a grant from IEEE Smart Village to fund the enlargement of REI’s minigrid operations and refine its enterprise mannequin. Sensible Village helps projects 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 Foundation.
The partnership has led to a collaboration growing open source metering, a free, community-driven method of monitoring vitality utilization. Not like 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 assist has been pivotal, Numfor says: “It’s not nearly cash. We share concepts, we get recommendation, and we have now made pals. 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 transferring in with a missionary household within the small village of Allat. They used solar panels to energy their entire house—an unimaginable luxurious in Mbem. “I may 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 gentle within the household’s house 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 useless battery with a motorcycle battery and was capable of convey the ability again for the night time.”
Jude Numfor [right] testing a chargeable photo voltaic lantern, which aimed to switch hazardous kerosene lamps—identified regionally as “bush lamps.”REI Cameroon
His missionary mother and father inspired Numfor to check know-how and engineering on his personal, as not one of the nation’s universities supplied solar energy instructional applications 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 switch hazardous kerosene lamps—identified regionally as “bush lamps”—with rechargeable photo voltaic lanterns.
These photo voltaic lanterns—known as “gentle packs”—had been constructed regionally by Numfor and a staff of 11 younger Cameroonians utilizing PVC pipes, nickel-metal hydride batteries, and LED bulbs. Households rented the lamps for a small charge, 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 accessible for the subsequent swap. “The photo voltaic lantern was safer and cleaner, plus it gave kids an opportunity to learn at night time,” Numfor explains. “Individuals beloved them.”
Between 2006 and 2010, his staff replicated the mannequin throughout a number of villages. However when the worldwide monetary disaster hit in 2008, donor assist 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 aim was to maneuver away from the lanterns and towards full electrification of communities. Villagers’ aspirations modified, Numfor says, as they now wished to energy their TVs, music methods, and mobile phones. In response, in 2010, REI developed one of many first photo voltaic minigrids in West Africa. Utilizing regionally procured elements, the prototype provided 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 acquire management lead acid batteries, and a Xantrex cost controller and inverter. Regionally sourced picket gentle poles had been erected to distribute electrical energy all through the village. REI charged every household a charge for the electrical energy.
“It was a product-market-fit second,” Numfor says. “Individuals instantly requested, ‘When can we get this, too?’” The word-of-mouth, grassroots progress caught the eye of world 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 entice extra grants, together with one from the U.S. Trade Development Agency (USTDA), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. REI has since expanded to 6 villages, offering energy to greater than 1,000 households and companies. With a devoted staff 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 a tutorial particular person—I needed to study every part by doing. [Smart Village] helped me construction the undertaking and develop as an entrepreneur.”
Immediately, 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 know the way energy is getting used, detect issues early, and handle the minigrid from a distance,” he explains.
Current business smart-meter suppliers provide restricted and proprietary options. One main supplier left the market, making their know-how infrastructure out of date. “It’s dangerous for a whole sector to rely on just a few firms for such a crucial know-how,” 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 Developers Association, EnAccess, Energy IOT, and NESL. The aim was to develop an open sensible metering system that’s accessible, clear, and sustainable for all vitality suppliers.
“These organizations are collaborating as Open Advanced Metering Infrastructure [OpenAMI], which is about giving management again to the individuals who ship the vitality,” he says.
Scaling for affect
Numfor’s ardour has grown from bringing gentle to native rural communities to bringing gentle to his whole nation. Simply 54 p.c of Cameroon’s residents have entry to electrical energy, in keeping with the International Energy Agency. For Numfor, the problem isn’t just technological—it’s social and financial as properly. “Electrical energy is an important enabler of schooling and economic growth at this time,” he says. “When you have got energy, you unlock every part else.”
“Electrical energy modified my life. Now I need to be sure each little one can develop up with that very same gentle.” —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 comparable to phone-charging stations and small mills. “Some villages even have laundromats now,” Numfor says proudly. “Electrical energy creates jobs and modifications 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 supply and distribute electrical energy in off-grid areas utilizing photo voltaic minigrids. This was a significant milestone as a result of REI is without doubt one of the first personal enterprises within the nation to obtain such authorization. “We had been caught between pilot projects 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 entice buyers.”
REI plans to broaden its attain dramatically, starting with 134 new villages recognized by means of a feasibility study supported by the USTDA. Their long-term aim is to affect 760 villages throughout Cameroon by 2031.
Whereas authorization opens doorways, financing stays certainly one of REI’s largest challenges. “The minigrid area doesn’t entice venture capitalists simply,” Numfor notes. “Our return on funding is underneath 15 p.c, so it’s not a typical tech startup mannequin. The true return right here is the affect” on the group.
He hopes to draw buyers who perceive that entry to electrical energy drives schooling, health care, and entrepreneurship. “There are folks on the market who need to make significant change,” he says. “We simply want to attach with them. If you electrify a village, you by no means know who the subsequent innovator will probably be. Perhaps it’s one other child like me, wanting by means of a window, dreaming.”
Discovering expert workers is one other problem, Numfor says. To deal with this, REI developed an intensive recruitment and coaching course of. “It used to take years to search out the correct folks,” he says. “Now, we will determine 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 provides easy phrases of recommendation to different impact-driven entrepreneurs: Hold transferring.
“Considered one of my errors early on was making an attempt to be good,” he says. “I used to be spending time bettering prototypes as a substitute of accelerating the variety of our undertaking installations and scaling what number of communities we may electrify. You should maintain momentum. Don’t wait till every part 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 affect by means of native entrepreneurs, native procurement, and group engagement based mostly on the usage of IEEE know-how in underserved communities.”
With the continuing Smart Village partnership, Numfor is set to convey gentle 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 each little one can develop up with that very same gentle.”
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