M-KOPA

In 2011, when M-KOPA was founded in Nairobi, it was to provide energy access to millions of African people who lived off grid and were dealing with either no access or very sporadic access to reliable electricity. The solution: to replace kerosene lanterns with solar energy, providing cleaner, safer lighting that enables people to be healthier, wealthier and more productive. To date, the company has sold over 1 million off-grid solar home systems (with integrated SIM card technology), which charge a range of products, including home lighting, radios, torches and telephones. This has benefitted over three million individuals across East Africa and displaced 2 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions – the equivalent of taking a coal-fired power plant offline for 150 days.

“What M-KOPA is doing is empowering and uplifting, but also hugely important to lots of families and household groups in the countries that it operates in,” says Adrian Mayer, Partner, in the Corporate team at Charles Russell Speechlys, which has provided legal advice to the company since 2015 on a range of shareholder issues, as well as matters relating to financings, employment, GDPR and management incentive schemes. “To be associated, and to assist, with the M-KOPA mission, is in a small way why we’re in the law,” he adds.

For Zigmund, there are lessons that the rest of the world can learn from Africa. “I would bet that some of the innovative solutions needed to address global issues, such as the climate crisis, will be developed here,” he says. “There's less dependence on old systems, old architecture and old ways of thinking and a cleaner slate. Provided there's the right regulatory environment and enough capital, those ideas will have the space to grow – so watch this space.”