Mobile Money Expert To Lead Renewable Energy Company

By Irene Gaitirira
Published August 13, 2019

A Ugandan with experience in mobile money, digital financial services and building sustainable businesses thas been appointed Chief Commercial Officer of a renewable energy company called Fenix International.

Junior Zerubabel Kwebiiha is expected to lead all commercial aspects of Fenix, including sales, distribution channels, business development, marketing, and customer experience, to ensure Fenix meets its ambitious global expansion plans. He will work alongside Fenix’s CTO Jit Bhattacharya and CFO Joshua Romisher to create an industry-leading digital finance platform, unlocking financial inclusion for Fenix’s rural, distributed customer base.

Kwebiiha, who prior to joining Fenix in April 2019, served as a Digital Financial Services Expert at the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in Zambia.

Kwebiiha, who co-founded EzeeMoney, a company that that develops services to meet the needs of healthcare, agriculture and small and medium enterprises in Uganda in 2012 and served as CEO until 2016, has also served as national sales manager at MTN Uganda’s Mobile Money.

“Junior Kwebiiha’s deep experience in bringing inclusive, life-changing products and services to last-mile customers in Africa is a perfect fit with Fenix’s mission and values,” says Lyndsay Handler, CEO of Fenix International. “His history of building entrepreneurial businesses from the founding stage to reaching millions of customers is exactly the leadership we need as we expand into new markets.His knowledge of our customer base will enable us to keep an exceptional customer experience at the heart of the business.”

“Pay-as-you-go companies have demonstrated the power of bringing digital financial services and renewable energy technology together to change the lives of off-grid customers,” Kwebiiha says. “We are at a pivotal moment in this industry as pay-go companies expand their relationships with customers to drive business growth. Fenix is a market leader in this industry and is relentlessly focused on creating an exceptional customer experience. I am excited to join Fenix at this moment as we bring new products and services to our customers and strive to reach tens of millions of off-grid households across Africa.”

Fenix, that does everything from design, manufacturing, sales, financing and customer service, says it has sold more than 400,000 solar home systems in Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Nigeria. It says its off-grid systems allow customers to light their homes, charge phones and power radios, TVs, clippers, and woofers.Its flagship product, ReadyPay Power, is an expandable, lease-to-own home solar system financed through instalments over Mobile Money. Its main aim, it says, is to bring power and a wider world of financing to millions of customers by 2020.