Mobile Phone Charging in Ghana
Matt Berg over at BuildAfrica blog has an interesting story of Mr Acheampong, a local entrepreneur who makes money by charging people’s mobile phones. He uses a homemade C-cell battery setup to do this (see below):
“Mr. Acheampong, one of the Abusuapanin Community Leader’s in Bonsaaso village, use’s 4 C dry cell batteries to charge mobile phones. The four 1.5V batteries in series adds up to 6V which is similar to the 5.5V that most cell phones require (amperage varies). The set of batteries cost 1 Ghana Cedi and he is able to charge four phones before needing to replace the batteries. This compares to the 1 Cedi cost of charging a phone at the local cell tower.”
However, Matt points out how inefficient this type of setup is. There are new low-cost options including the Tough Stuff Solar Panel coming in at around $20 retail.
Tags: Africa, african, entrepreneur, Ghana, maker, maker faire africa
Flickr Photos
Jun 30, 2009
[...] Read the original: Mobile Phone Charging in Ghana | Maker Faire Africa – Aug 14th … [...]
Jul 03, 2009
I supply low cost pv solar for people far from mains power.
People are supplied with with parts and instructions to make their own devices – like charging up batteries.
Another example is a solar mobile phone battery charger which costs about $5 (plus postage)
If you are interested (and not on the mains) send me your postal address and I will send you a free sample pack.
Graham
Jan 11, 2010
i would want a sample of one
May 10, 2010
When buying Cellphone Batteries make sure that you are not getting those chinese fakes and knockoffs.”`: