A Young African’s Ambition To Power Africa With His Micro Fuel Cells
If you walked into the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel on Thursday 10th December 2015 at 9:15, you would have caught a young, energetic man on stage churning out the story of his amazing rise from blowing up his mother’s kitchen in the small village of Mthatha, to doing life changing research at NASA.
This man’s name is Siya Xuza and he was the speaker at the 16th MTN Business World Breakfast Meeting. The event, which is arguably one of the most important thought leadership forums on the Ghanaian corporate calendar, is organised by leading business magazine Businesses World.
The 16th edition was markedly different from previous ones. While some of the most accomplished names in business have graced the Banquet Room of the grand hotel in Accra, this is the first event featuring a 27 year old rocket scientist with a planet named after him.
On stage, Siya has the presence of an old soul, the intellect of a scholar and the energy of a 5 year old. Incidentally, it was at that age that he started questioning the dynamics of air travel. He became fascinated with the solar system and galactic travel and picked Jupiter as his favourite planet. He said his first dream was to land on the biggest planet in our solar system. A rather logical thinker for his age, he began thinking of how to get there and came to the conclusion that he absolutely had to build a space rocket and to power the rocket, he needed rocket fuel.
Trying to make this rocket fuel is how his mother’s kitchen went ka-boom! Even though he was banned from the kitchen after the incident, Siya kept experimenting.
In middle school, he won a science fair when after many failures; he finally made a rocket fly. The accolades piled on until the crown of it all; he received a personal phone call from the FLOTUS Michelle Obama and, as he put it, he “got President Obama to say Mthatha” when he met with him personally.
After completing Harvard University, where Siya studied on full scholarship, he was faced with the question that many bright, young, African minds who study abroad encounter; should he stay on in America with the possibility of earning a 6 figure salary or should he take everything he’s learned and go back home to better his homeland.
According to Siya, this was a no brainer for him. He said he believes that great endeavours take time and Africa’s youth have to focus of building a system that generates wealth by creating value and equity instead of simply acquiring riches. So he chose to come back to South Africa.
Back home, he wasted no time on being complacent “your ability to handle change is your ability remain relevant. He set about to start his own company Galactic Energy Ventures (GEV).
The soul aim of GEV is to help de-centralise energy production in Africa, which he believes is Africa’s answer to the current energy crises the continent faces. He developed fuel cells small enough to fit into homes which are powered by biogas.
Nano scale technology is not unheard of. What Siya did was to enhance the storage capacity of these cells by making them circular instead of the traditional square (which tends to break when it is bigger) and places many small circular cells together to form a bigger circle.
With funding he secured from investors and help from the South African government, Siya’s company is well on its way to putting electricity in every African home. He says the final solution will be roughly the size of a washing machine which should not take much space in even a small home. He thinks solving the problems of today by improving on the solutions of the past will amount to nothing.
Here’s a young man who is rethinking our approaches at becoming power sufficient and has presented a solution that is tailored for us. This, he thinks, is how Africa will become great; because the new crop of African entrepreneurs see Africa’s problems not as problems but as opportunities.
He finally touched on collaboration as the catalyst to move us from our subsistence to major, impactful and long lasting changes. “We didn’t come this far only to come this far,” we must go all the way because “good is the enemy of great”
He ended his presentation by quoting our very own Kwame Nkrumah saying; “Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge – a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve – to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life?” Address to the National Assembly. 12 June 1965
Siya was given a standing ovation which lasted for minutes when he finished his energetic delivery. He is truly a symbol of Africa’s bright future, our determination to succeed and a reminder that though we fail continuously, it is our perseverance and collaboration that will one day bring us to our common goal of making Africa great again.