Inno Africa Hero
Smart Utilities IoT Success

Connectivity Enables Essential Water & Energy to Flow to Millions in Africa.

Learn why Innovation: Africa (iA) chose to collaborate with Eseye to make clean water and energy available to the most deserving communities in rural Africa.

Life-changing utility services 

There are 620 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa currently living without electricity, while 400 million have no access to safe drinking water. Only 34% of medical centres and less than 25% of schools across Africa have access to electricity. Without it, there is no access to quality education or safe healthcare.

Founded in 2008, Innovation: Africa (iA) is a non-profit organisation on a mission to build solar energy and water installations in off-grid villages, schools and medical centres.

iA builds water towers up to 10 metres tall with solar panels attached, which capture energy from the sun and use it to pump groundwater to a tank at the top of the structure, from where it can be distributed via a system of pipes.

These pipes lead to 10-15 water tap stations throughout the village and give the community access to up to 30,000 litres of fresh clean water. In addition to providing water to remote villages in Africa, iA also uses solar technologies to provide electricity to schools and medical centres, drastically improving their health and economic outcomes.

Outages risk leaving people in the dark

To ensure there’s no interruption in the delivery of these essential services, iA implements its in-house Remote Monitoring Technology at each location. This system uses smart IoT devices, connected via cellular technology, to enable the team at iA’s headquarters in Israel to track the amount of electricity and water consumed. It also sends alerts if a malfunction occurs, so the problem can be quickly rectified.

Achieving the comprehensive cellular coverage required to guarantee continuous, reliable monitoring was a major challenge. All of iA’s installations are in remote areas that are typically underserved by mobile network operators, and suffer from patchy reception. Any drop in connectivity could result in villagers being left without water and light.

A lack of connectivity options also threatened iA’s ambitions to expand its footprint of solar installations across multiple African countries. Its existing connectivity provider was unable to provide coverage in all of the areas it wanted to reach.

Why Innovation: Africa chose Eseye

Inno Africa Icon Connectivity

Reliable Connectivity

Eseye’s AnyNet+ SIMs automatically connect to the best available mobile network, wherever the installation is, and switch to an alternative if there’s an interruption.

Inno Africa Icon Platform

One Management Platform

Using Eseye's Infinity IoT Platform™ allows iA to monitor vital solar and water installations in rural villages across multiple African countries, centrally, via a single view.

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Limitless Scalability

To date, iA has completed more than 900 battery-powered solar and water installations in 950 villages across 10 African countries, bringing access to energy and clean water to over 4.2 million people.

Reliable pan-Africa IoT coverage

iA began to embed Eseye’s multi-IMSI AnyNet+ eSIMs into each of the remote monitoring units it deployed in the field.

Straight out-of-the-box, the AnyNet+ eSIM automatically detects and connects to the best available mobile network in the location. It is also able to switch instantly to another if there’s an outage, or network latency risks a delay in data transfer. This keeps data flowing consistently, enabling iA to monitor the performance of each of its installations in real-time.

Thanks to this ubiquitous global connectivity, iA has been able to successfully initiate two new operations in Malawi and Cameroon.

A close advocate of Innovation: Africa brought to our attention the possibility of collaborating with Eseye, given its industry expertise and stellar reputation.

Meir Ya'acoby, Chief Electrical Engineer, Innovation: Africa

Eseye extended its support to African countries that our previous solution couldn’t accommodate. This enhancement significantly bolstered our capacity to minimise project downtime, while also enabling us to efficiently expand and undertake more projects, all in a cost-effective manner.

Meir Ya’acoby, Chief Electrical Engineer, Innovation: Africa

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Smart Utilities Success

Multi-network connectivity

Eseye’s AnyNet Federation grants customers like iA access to more than 700 cellular networks in over 190 countries. Each eSIM can be loaded with multiple network user profiles before shipping, and more can be added remotely over the air after deployment, future-proofing the device and project.

To keep everything running smoothly, Eseye offers iA ongoing technical support to optimise service quality. “The Eseye team exhibits a high level of professionalism, always available and eager to assist,” says Meir Ya’acoby.

Inno Africa Girls Using Tap

Real-time monitoring

The AnyNet+ eSIMs communicate seamlessly with the GateTel modems used by iA in its remote monitoring units, transmitting data on performance and status gathered by the device to the team at headquarters via iA’s proprietary web application and in-house servers.

Eseye’s Infinity IoT Connectivity Management Platform gives the iA team visibility of device and connection status across its entire estate. They can oversee the data from each and every water and solar system they have installed across rural Africa, all through a single view and managed centrally from the iA headquarters in Israel. This paints a real-time picture of the amount of electricity and water used, and integrates with iA’s UN award-winning remote monitoring system. 

Inno Africa Woman Planting Crops

Plans to expand

More than 4.2 million people are now benefiting from iA’s solar energy and water installations, in Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, DRC, Senegal, Cameroon, Zambia and Swatini.

To date, Eseye’s connectivity solution is helping to keep more than 250 units operating smoothly. iA has plans to expand its estate, delivering an additional 1,200 projects that will have a positive impact on health and quality of life for 10 million people. It is also planning future enhancements to its platform, including the capability to send and receive SMS messages between villages and the team managing the deployment at HQ.

Through the utilisation of Eseye SIMs, we establish seamless connectivity across all our projects, furthering our mission to deliver essential water and electricity services within the regions where we operate.

Meir Ya’acoby, Chief Electrical Engineer, Innovation: Africa

Through Eseye’s solutions, we are able to establish reliable connections across our countries of operation. Eseye also facilitates data communication and real-time monitoring of our various projects.

Meir Ya’acoby, Chief Electrical Engineer, Innovation: Africa

It’s truly inspiring to see the impact that Innovation: Africa is making to millions of lives. With constant access to both clean water and electricity, the next generation have improved access to education and healthcare, which sets them up for a great start in life. iA is also bolstering local economies by creating jobs for each community and training 10 people from each village to maintain utility services.

Nick Earle, CEO, Eseye

To learn more about the work of Innovation: Africa, visit their website: https://innoafrica.org/

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