CEO Diane Umunyurwa’s solar mesh-grid innovation empowers remote communities, bridging gaps traditional solutions cannot reach.

Despite significant progress in energy access, 600 million people in Africa still lack reliable electricity. Expanding the grid is prohibitively expensive, while commonly used solutions — Solar Home Systems (SHS), mini-grids, and diesel generators — struggle to meet last-mile needs.

Addressing this challenge requires more than just technology — it calls for a deep understanding of last-mile access barriers, a principle that drives G-HiTech’s mission. By interconnecting individual energy installations into resilient, shared networks, the company’s flexible grids enable gradual expansion and community-driven energy sharing, making them particularly effective in remote areas.

Mission built on experience

For Diane Umunyurwa, CEO of G-HiTech, access to electricity is more than a development challenge — it is personal. Growing up in Africa, she saw firsthand how energy access shaped the futures of families and businesses — power fueled economic progress, while darkness imposed limitations. Later, as a refugee, she experienced these limitations firsthand —where darkness was no longer just an inconvenience, but a barrier to safety, opportunity, and dignity.

“Each dark night was a reminder that energy is more than power — it is security, economic freedom, and human dignity,” said Diane.

Determined to be part of the solution, she pursued a master’s degree in electrical engineering and built a career in sustainable energy at Europe’s top firms. Yet, years later, in a village much like those from her childhood, she stood watching as children still studied under the dim glow of kerosene lamps — the same weary light she once knew. Why had decades of ‘progress’ changed so little for some?

The answer, she realized, lay not in replicating conventional energy models, but in fundamentally rethinking energy access. Partnering with Mathias, an embedded electronics and space technology researcher, now CTO, she co-founded G-HiTech, a company dedicated to making affordable, sustainable, and decentralized energy access a reality. Their vision goes beyond electrification — transforming how communities access, share and benefit from solar power, ensuring even the most remote areas can inclusively fuel their own progress.

G-Hitech: a new approach to energy access

G-HiTech is a clean energy firm bridging the energy gap to drive economic and social progress. Headquartered in Belgium, the company deploys mesh-grid technology to create interconnected energy networks that adapt and grow with community needs. While SHS can power households, they often lack the capacity to support productive enterprises. Mini grids, though effective for higher demands, require significant upfront investment, whereas diesel generators remain costly and environmentally harmful. Through its suite of solutions, G-HiTech not only pushes beyond the constraints of these traditional approaches, but also champions business-led solutions that strengthen local economic resilience and expand community impact.

G-HiTech Central Power Hub

To achieve this, the company’s solar mesh-grids provide a smarter, modular, and decentralized energy solution. This approach delivers multiple advantages. First, communities can share energy resources, significantly reducing costs for end-users. Second, its modular and scalable design ensures seamless expansion as demand grows. Finally, its decentralized design reduces dependence on expensive infrastructure, making it a sustainable solution for remote and low-density regions.

Yet, technology alone is not enough — affordability is crucial. The key challenge remains: how can these solutions be made financially viable for users with limited resources?

G-HiTech is a clean energy firm bridging the energy gap to drive economic and social progress.

To solve this, G-HiTech is implementing two financing models. The first, a Pay-As-You-Go service, operates like a lease-to-own system, allowing users to make small, incremental payments. The second, a Product-as-a-Service model, installs shared infrastructure so customers only pay for the electricity they use. This approach is set to be piloted at Lake Tanganyika, where a solar charging station will power fishing lanterns for local fishermen and their businesses — demonstrating how clean energy can be both affordable and practical. By removing high upfront costs, this initiative ensures that clean energy reaches those who need it most, driving both environmental and economic benefits.

An “energy community”

To ensure long-term sustainability, G-HiTech partners with investors to fund infrastructure, which is then managed by local operators. Its advanced software automates mobile money payments, simplifying transactions while generating valuable energy usage data. This data is monetized through carbon credit markets, creating an additional revenue stream that further reduces costs for consumers while ensuring attractive returns for investors.

Mesh Grid

“Our goal is simple,” says Diane. “To provide clean energy at no extra cost while ensuring a payback period of less than three years for investors.” But access alone is not enough — true impact is measured in transformed lives, thriving businesses, and long-term sustainability”.

Measuring impact: beyond electricity

Energy access is only meaningful if it leads to real change — understanding its impact is critical. Measuring progress ensures long-term benefits, from economic growth and education to environmental sustainability. By tracking key indicators like energy usage, income levels, and student performance, G-HiTech ensures its solutions drive measurable, lasting progress.

To ensure its solutions drive meaningful impact, G-HiTech is advancing a data-driven approach, incorporating IoT-enabled monitoring, surveys, and benchmarking. Newly deployed IoT sensors will track real-time energy consumption — helping validate sustainability efforts and optimize grid performance. At the same time, field surveys and benchmarking will assess cost savings, productivity improvements, and economic benefits — ensuring impact measurement aligns with real user experiences.

As G-HiTech expands energy access in Malawi’s schools, its data-driven approach will ensure progress is measured — informing future strategies and shaping future investments in education. G-HiTech’s impact goals

G-HiTech’s impact goals

Example of impact in Malawi

Few places illustrate the urgency of energy access better than Malawi, where unreliable electricity has long cut study hours short, limiting students’ ability to learn and thrive. To change this reality, G-HiTech stepped in — introducing solar mesh-grids to bring light to schools and transform learning.

G-HiTECH’s first electrified school, moments before welcoming students. Courtesy of G-HiTech

“The transformation was immediate,” Diane recalls. “Through our successful pilot we saw schools staying open longer, businesses thriving, and a renewed sense of hope spread throughout the community.”

Still, the real impact went beyond electricity, transforming how students engaged with education. As night fell, they returned to schools — first gathering outside under solar lights, then inside reopened classrooms, fostering a new culture of evening study.

For Diane, this transformation is only the start of a much bigger shift. “With reliable electricity, students can now dream bigger — access to computers and the internet could unlock opportunities that were once out of reach.”

Energy access is only meaningful if it leads to real change — understanding its impact is critical.

Currently, G-HiTech is rolling out its plan to fully electrify 45 schools — making progress toward its goal of reaching over 10,000 students by the end of 2025. Beyond classrooms, over 100 adjacent businesses are also set to be electrified — unlocking new opportunities for productivity and local economic growth. As part of this broader initiative, G-HiTech is committed to ensuring women-led enterprises gain equitable energy access, allowing female entrepreneurs to scale their businesses sustainably.

Looking ahead

Building on this progress, G-HiTech is preparing to scale its solutions into some of the hardest-to-reach regions in Sub-Saharan Africa, ensuring they reach the communities that need them most. However, expanding clean energy in these areas requires more than just technology — it demands trust, innovative financing, and data-driven insights to ensure lasting impact.

To meet this challenge, G-HiTech is deepening collaborations with local operators, investors, and governments, fostering transparency and financial viability. A key priority is phasing out costly, polluting diesel generators and replacing them with solar mesh-grids — providing a cleaner, more reliable alternative for businesses and households alike.

As part of its long-term strategy, G-HiTech aims to refine and scale its approach — strengthening partnerships and optimizing its model to amplify on-the-ground results. With an eye on expansion, the company is positioning itself to develop scalable solutions that adapt to evolving energy needs — laying the groundwork for sustainable growth across Africa and beyond.