Youth Generates Income Through Electricity

| Monday June 17, 2013 00:00

 

Unlike the prevailing mode where customers purchase electricity over the counter, Bailelwang's company, LowePower, is an on-line service for the buying and selling of power and mobile phone airtime at discounted rates.'I was studying computer engineering at the College and unfortunately I dropped out in 2010,' he told Business Monitor.

'But this did not discourage me and I realised that I could use the time to develop an idea that I initially had in 2007. I realised that the idea could solve my unemployment while also helping people save the time they spend queuing for prepaid power.'According to the young entrepreneur, to use the system, a customer has to be registered with LowePower and the technology will work on any phone that has an Internet connection.

'You log on to the system and type in your meter number and the amount of electricity you want,' he explained.'Customers can also transfer funds from their LowePower accounts to other registered members.'Although the business idea came in 2007 when he was doing his College first year, he could not bring it to reality due to a shortage of funds. However, the idea's seeds had already been sown as the young entrepreneur realised a business opportunity from the inconvenience of queuing for power.

'I had this idea when I was in school because I always hated queuing for a long time to buy prepaid electricity,' he explained.'I even presented the idea to the energy minister in 2007 but it did not succeed due to the problem of funding.' Bailelwang however did not give up and instead started off by selling prepaid airtime. His efforts bore fruit after the Botswana Power Corporation awarded his company a tender for prepaid power and helped him establish the business.

Currently LowePower has three employees and several agents trading around the country.Although the business is prospering, Bailelwang says eking out profits is still difficult because LowePower has to share its five percent commission from BPC with its agents.'We have agents in most parts of the country and we are still looking for more people to join so that we can expand our operations,' he said. He encouraged fellow youth to utilise the knowledge they receive at school to venture into entrepreneurial activities, instead of waiting for formal sector employment.