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The power move
Quitting the 9–5 to fight energy poverty
Pauline Ronoh & Ian Musembi
December 07, 2025 • Today's reading time: 3 minutes
Hey,
Welcome to Green Jobs Rising!
A newsletter for young professionals that not only showcases opportunities in the green sector but also inspires them to forge a new path.
When life throws you lemons, what’s your next move?
Build a company that improves the lives of those living in energy poverty by providing clean energy and employment for local communities.
That’s what Liliane Munezero Ndabaneze did when she resigned her job in Washington, D.C., and relocated to Zambia with her husband.
According to the World Bank’s 2023 data, roughly 49% of the population in Zambia does not have access to electricity.
This population relies on toxic and expensive alternative energy sources such as candles, kerosene, and diesel.
Her passion for empowering women and girls drove her entrepreneurial journey.
In 2016, she started an all-women initiative,WidEnergy Africa Ltd., a company providing last-mile delivery of clean, affordable energy to rural Zambia.
Despite major funding challenges rooted in gender and cultural biases, the struggle to balance entrepreneurship with being a wife and mother, and the fight to be invited into rooms where handshakes and deals are made, she persisted, and she made it.
She grew the company from one person to more than 50 employees and many sales agents.
Failure is not the end but an opportunity to understand the gaps in your entrepreneurial journey and look for ways to tweak or improve your big idea. The most important thing is to fail, learn, act, and repeat. At WidEnergy and as an entrepreneur, our journey has had many challenges, but our passion and vision, understanding why we exist, has helped us soldier on impacting and changing one life at a time.
As the world transitions to a more sustainable way of life, small ideas are all it takes to get there.
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, step up, Africa needs you!
Feeling inspired and thinking this could be you one day, but you are unsure where to begin, this video breaks down how to place yourself for the right opportunities.
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