A few months after the start of the manufacturing of lamps and solar-home-systems in Porto Novo, Espérance HOUESSOU, Director of Lagazel Benin, tells us how the activities on the field are going.

  • The Lagazel BN workshop was inaugurated in October 2021. Can you tell us how the first months of activities are going?

Yes, Lagazel Benin was inaugurated precisely on October 7, 2021, in the middle of the Covid-19 global health crisis. You can imagine with us the very difficult context in which we started our activities. The first months of activities were very difficult with important delays for the import of raw material to which are added the difficulties related to any new company. Despite this, we managed to successfully deliver our first markets of collective charging stations for solar lamps and solar-home-systems in the second half of 2021. In addition, since the beginning of 2022, we have welcomed dozens of young people on practical training courses in the factory, supported by the ANPE as part of the Azoli program.

  • How has the initiative been received by the communities in the neighborhood, the actors of the municipality of Porto Novo and government institutions?

It must be said that Lagazel’s dream in Benin became a reality thanks to the support of MCA Benin II through the OCEF, the Off-Grid Electricity Access Project financed by the MCC and the Government of Benin. Also the government supported us by its presence during the inauguration and it is the occasion to thank the Minister of Energy Jean-Claude Dona HOUSSOU who was the sponsor of the event.

As far as the authorities of the town of Porto-Novo are concerned, the welcome and the support were great. The different mayors having understood the added value of this factory for the city of Porto-Novo have supported the initiative by granting the domain on which the factory is currently located.

In the neighborhood, at the beginning, people were already curious to know what was being built on their territory. Many volunteered for masonry work, clearing and other tasks. This has even motivated the application of several local young people for technician positions at the plant. Today with great satisfaction we have 3 of these young people (1 woman and 2 men) in our team at the factory.

  • As a local manufacturer, what are the challenges you have to overcome?

In terms of challenges to overcome, they are numerous and not the least. We will allow ourselves to list only a few.

First, we will talk about the unfair competition of imported products that are often of poor quality and very cheap. It is therefore difficult to put a quality product on the market when the price of raw materials has soared because of COVID and currently the war in Ukraine.

Secondly, the experience of the Beninese population in the field of solar energy is not reassuring. In the recent past, the population has known projects in this field from which they have had a bad experience with solar products. The population is therefore reluctant.

Better to say that the local production has no value for us, African people. We still think that “what is produced locally is not of good quality”. Fortunately, this is not true.

  • What are your development perspectives for next year?

Currently we are devoting a lot of energy to reach our goal of distributing 20,000 solar products on the Beninese market by early 2023. During the school vacations, we will offer vacations in Lagazel to allow children to discover solar energy in our workshop. Finally, as a perspective, we plan to put new products on the market such as the cell phone charging station and we are also working on solar refrigeration with a well-developed after sales service.

Thank you very much !