Two billions of people don’t have access to fundamental energy services around the world. In Sahelian Africa, the majority of the population leaves in rural areas and less than 10 % of them have an access to electricity. Access to electricity is particularly crucial to human development as electricity is essential for certain basic activities, such as lighting,refrigeration and the running of household appliances, and cannot easily be replaced by other forms of energy. Individuals’ access to electricity is one of the clearest and undistorted indications of a country’s energy poverty status.

Based on this observation, CB Energie was founded by Arnaud Chabane, a French national electrician engineer, in 2004 in the city of Dédougou, located about 220 km west of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou.

CB Energie is now an established private company based in Burkina Faso, selling a wide range of solar energy applications. One of CB Energie’s core products is the solar lamp. CB Energie currently produces about 2 000 solar lamps per month and have outlet shops (“boutiques”) in several villages near Dédougou. There is also one outlet shop in Gounghin, Ouagadougou. CB Energie employs 20 staff, including 10 people working full time on the solar lamp business unit.