What does your dream business in Ghana look like?

Working with both local and external partners to deliver quality and affordable Solar power systems for both residential and commercial use, with an ideal rate of 50 installations of varying sizes each year.

What are the assessed needs for your business

A strategic financial partner is needed to make the product affordable for the customers. With good funding secured, a very reliable post-implementation support to deliver a high customer experience for such a long-term investment. Achieving a quick customer response time, proactive monitoring and customer training tools (website self-service) are some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to be adopted. Specialist equipment and tools (both hardware and software) are required through the various stages of the implementation cycle (e.g. Transport, PV design software, monitoring tools, Electrical power tools etc.).

What impact does your business make (to local communities/creating employment/environment/economic development

Employing and training local people within the community improves the living standards of these employees and their families. Buying locally needed materials also adds and enhances local commerce. The installation of Solar energy system directly improves the environment by reducing the amount of fossil fuel pollution in the air, noise pollution and high energy cost; all of these being a contributed by existing heavy use of petrol/diesel generators.

How does your business benefit the country of implementation -Ghana

Reduced reliance on the already limited national grid electricity supply; Reduced unemployment; Improved productivity (GDP); General improvement of living standards (studies show families in developed countries who have access to electricity tend to have a higher quality of living and are more productive than those without).

How does your business benefit the Netherlands

To adhere to our set quality standards, we would be working with suppliers from the Netherlands for key components (like batteries, Inverters and solar panel). Working with such businesses in The Netherlands opens further opportunities for these companies. With an improved standard of living and reduced unemployment, The Netherland’s (EU) overseas development fund/contribution will be reduced annually.

How did the startup boot-camp help you

I am a very technical person and I do not have any experience in business or finance management and the bootcamp has greatly improved my confidence and knowledge. I am now more realistic with expectations (MVP is very crucial and you learn to fail and pivot!!). Not to mention meeting so many like-minded people to network with! Having met other entrepreneurs has boosted my confidence and instilled more believe in my ideas!

If you would like to partner with David send us an email to info@zidicircle.com and be on the lookout for his funding round that will soon be posted on our platform

What does your dream business in Ethiopia look like?

Many business process (e.g. construction management) in Ethiopia still uses manual, error prone and outdated practices. We, at Next System Solutions, aim at providing custom tailored and home made solutions to improve and automate these outdated business processes.

What are the assessed needs for your business

We need to hire sales personnel for promoting our MVP, and one extra web developer for adding features to our MVP. Office establishment and other operational costs are also among the reasons contributing for the needed of additional funding of 30,000 euros.

What impact does your business make (to local communities/creating employment/environment/economic development?

The key benefit for the local community is the creations of more sustainable cities through housing security. Are are also transferring practical and state-of-the art software development practices to young Ethiopian IT graduates ultimately creating employment opportunities for the youth.

How does your business benefit the country of implementation Ethiopia?

Construction in Ethiopia is marred with delays and cost overruns. By providing a better management platform, we will alleviate these delays and cost overruns, which will assist in tackling the infrastructure and housing problems of Ethiopia.

How does your business benefit the Netherlands?

Beside developing solutions for Ethiopian businesses, One of our other ambitions is to be a cheaper alternatives for western companies looking for outsourcing their IT projects. We expect high tech Dutch companies as our first potential beneficiaries.

How did the startup boot-camp help you?

The founders of the startup are technical professionals with limited business knowledge. The entrepreneurship training has helped us in grasping basic ideas about business models and other aspects of establishing and running a start-ups.

If you would like to support Abelneh please send us an email at info@zidicircle.com