Cleantech Startup PAMAfrica to Represent Nigeria in the 2021 EDF Pulse Africa Award in Paris
By Princess Wilson
Founded by Dr. Patrick Agese in February 2021, PAMAfrica is a cleantech company in Lagos, Nigeria, that aims to improve the quality of life in Africa by providing reliable power. The startup achieves this by providing energy storage products and renewable energy services to Africans. One of its outstanding products, The Butcher Box, has led the startup to emerge as one of the 2021 EDF Pulse Africa Awards Finalists.
Earlier this year, EDF announced the 4th edition of its EDF Pulse Africa Awards, a call for innovative African startups in the energy sector. The Awards aims to identify potential partners and support innovations that are solving Africa’s current energy challenges, and The Butcher Box does precisely that.
The Butcher Box is a refrigerator powered by solar energy to help butchers preserve meat. This innovation was prompted by Nigeria’s heavy meat consumption and, yet, low and, most times, unavailable storage options. Meat, in this case, are proteins that could be anything from cow to goat and ram. These meat are generally processed in unhygienic environments where they are exposed to flies and other insects. In most cases, a portion of this meat spoils before the end of the day if the butchers don’t find customers for them.
The Butcher Box offers the perfect solution to this problem by providing a clean environment powered by renewable energy for sellers to store their meat. The Butcher Box features a 600 Watts solar panel on its roof which charges the battery system within the box. This innovation allows traders to preserve their meat and other perishable products without connecting to the grid for up to 24 hours.
In the past editions of EDF, only one Nigerian startup won a prize from the EDF. in 2018, SolarCreed received a 3rd prize for providing Nigerian poultry farmers with solar-powered lighting systems to replace fossil-fuelled lighting systems reducing 30% of farmers’ operational cost.
On December 2nd, 2021, the EDF will make announcements in Paris, declaring the prize The Butcher Box and other innovations will be receiving. Winners will be awarded prizes ranging from 5,000 euros to 15,000 euros. They will also be granted one-year access to EDF’s new acceleration program called EDF Pulse Africa Factory, which will gather investors and expert mentors to help these startups develop their solutions.
