Power Shops

Jesse Walker | December 27, 2007

From Sierra Leone, an interesting VOA report about entrepreneurs with electric generators:

Shops like these dot every neighborhood. They offer a range of services, from haircuts with electric shavers to pay phone calls.

And for about 35 cents at almost any of the shops, you can charge your cell phone.

Although video games, haircuts, and cell phone charging do not seem related, there is one thing they have in common: they all require electricity. And that is something in short supply in Freetown.

Alvin Williams, who owns and operates the video-game, telephone, and cell phone-charging shop, says it has been more than a week since he has had electricity at home....But the 22-year-old electrical engineering student turned entrepreneur has been able to turn his city's lack of power into an opportunity for himself. He will use the profits from his shop to pay for school.

[Via Timbuktu Chronicles.]