As far back as 2014, it was really difficult to charge phones and laptops due to a lack of electricity. For weeks on end, businesspeople relied on dilapidated solar panels to power their devices.

“We were charging our gadgets at this guy’s house, and we were not charging from the battery, but directly from the sun through his inverter,” one of the people in Lesotho rural community, Thabane told China Dialogue. “After that, the laptop developed battery problems and I decided to devise a long-term solution.”

For Thabane, an engineer, that solution was solar-charging booths. Through his company Arbitrage PTY he set up six such booths in the Thaba-Tseka district and sold them to rural entrepreneurs.

The one in Mashai is owned by ‘Malimakatso Molatelle. She says her business makes a killing during the winter season from the end of March to the beginning of September.    

“We, the people of Mashai, used to struggle a lot with charging our phones because portable solar panels entirely depend on the sun rays for charging,” Molatelle said.  She points to climate change as having “made things worse because it can go up to a week without sunshine.”

Molatelle added: “Business is thriving in winter because owners of portable solar panels have no option but to come here and charge their phones for a fee of five Maloti (US$0.27).” The kiosk’s solar panels are more efficient, she explains.

Lesotho, a mountainous nation in southern Africa, is the coldest country on the continent. Thabane explains that cold temperatures are suitable for solar power because “solar panels generate electricity from sunlight, not heat. A bright and cold day is more ideal than a bright and extremely hot day for a generation.”

In addition to winter, Molatelle says business also thrives during the December holidays because of inter-community football competitions that take place next to her kiosk. Spectators come from neighboring communities and charge their phones while watching matches.

Whether derived from a specialist kiosk or a portable panel at home, solar power has changed many lives for the better in Lesotho.

Matholang Jane’s family relies on it. Her yard in Mashai bears a blue portable solar panel that feeds a battery covered in a silver cylinder, which functions as a phone charger, lamp, heater, and stove.

At least 47% of Lesotho’s 2.2 million people had access to electricity in 2020, a huge jump from just 4.3% two decades previously, according to the World Bank.

Lesotho is trying to increase access by connecting rural households to the national grid through a rural electrification program first introduced in 2004.

Lesotho’s total electricity demand is approximately 150 megawatts (MW). It meets about 72 MW of this demand via the Lesotho Highlands Water Project – a network of tunnels and dams that generates electricity for Lesotho and diverts water for neighboring South Africa. 

Thabane says he opted for solar panels made in Canada for use on all his charging booths. He says: “There are no reflective losses, and this is why ours work way better than those of villagers during cloudy days.”

Molatelle also sells solar battery lamps which people can use to light their homes and charge their phones. Although durable, the lamps rely on sun rays for charging.

The soft-spoken Molatelle, 49, says she first met Thabane in 2019 during a public gathering in her village.

She says she struggled to pay off the initial loan she had taken out to buy the kiosk from Thabane’s company after she was forced to close the shop during a series of hard Covid lockdowns. She has since settled the debt, she adds.

Apart from Thabane’s solar-charging booths, rural communities benefit from the off-grid electricity supplied by One Power, a Lesotho-based energy start-up. The company’s solar mini-grid system started operating at Ha Makebe in the Berea district in March 2021, according to the Lesotho Bureau of Statistics’ 2021 Energy Report.

On a larger scale, the Lesotho government is implementing its first solar electricity plant at Ramarothole in the Mafeteng district, which is expected to generate 70 MW once completed. The two-phase plant, financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, attracted controversy a few years ago when former ministers were accused of inflating its price to provide kickbacks for the politicians who pushed the deal through.

This company has not only provided a source of electricity, but it has also provided business ventures for people like Molatelle, and it has helped fight livestock theft as someone can call a popular community radio.