Happy to close yet another deal as CEO of All On. In 2017, Chukwuemeka Godwin Nwangele (now a Rhodes Scholar at University of Oxford), Uchechukwu Ogechukwu (founding CEO), AARON ESUMEH (current CEO), Kingsley Okereke, and Nnaemeka Udeh founded Greenage Technologies while students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The company was established to manufacture solar components and as a solar installation company in Enugu State.
They reached out to Stella Obot and Aishat Alimi of All On and came to Lagos for a meeting to understand more about the sector and what support was available. In 2019 Greenage Technologies emerged as a winner of the Off Grid Challenge and received a $50,000 grant from U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) and $50,000 convertible debt from All On.
After their impressive delivery on the $100,000 funding from the challenge, All On kept track of the company and their impressive growth. We have now committed to an additional $450,000 in a mix of equity and convertible notes to fund the construction of a larger manufacturing facility for charge controllers and inverters in Enugu and the meeting of their working capital requirements. The financing will enable Greenage Technologies to play an increasingly important role within the Nigerian renewable energy value chain as a manufacturer of solar energy system components.
This is at the core of what All On is all about — investing in (often young) Nigerian entrepreneurs addressing the country’s energy access gap with home grown solutions. When I visited the Greenage Technologies facility in Enugu in 2021, Uchechukwu Ogechukwu challenged me asking that if All On was set up to support Nigerians, why are we spending 90% of our funds on Chinese products? We took the challenge seriously and through our follow on investment in Auxano Solar Nig. Ltd and this deal with Greenage Technologies we are doing our part to foster the localization of the solar supply chain so that a higher and higher percentage of our funding will stay in Nigeria.
The CEO of All On, Wiebe Boer, has therefore wished the Greenage Technologies team good luck , stating that he has total faith in its ability to succeed while the All On team will continue to be there to support them.
