Ms Shupikayi Christine Masaiti
Director
Grandstage Energy
South Africa
W : www.grandstaget.com
Industry / Sector
Agriculture & Allied Services, Power & Energy
Personal Profile
Christine is the Founder and CEO of Grandstage, a renewable energy company steering the vision of "lighting Africa, one community at a time" because she believes in a world where everyone has access to electricity.
Professionally, Christine has 12 years’ experience within the LED lighting, renewable energy and sustainability sectors. Previously, she worked for 18 years in financial services, with specialization in Life Assurance, Investment, Business Transformation and Strategy Direction.
At Grandstage, Christine has a team of 10 next- generation visionaries with a purpose to create a carbon-free world by accelerating the clean energy transition for sustainability and food security. Instrumental to her success is the capacity to bring together a strong commercial strategy, financial planning and analysis, and business intelligence for exponential growth, propelling Grandstage to have a footprint in seven African nations and in German??. Christine prioritizes limited resources for sales and business development on productive customer segments with a mission to have gained 12% market share by 2025.
Additionally, Christine holds a Master of Science in Global Management degree from the University of Salford (UK), several Diplomas in Marketing, Business Studies, Corporate Management: and a certificate in Thought Leadership for Africa’s Renewal.
Company Profile
Grandstage is 100% black women owned renewable energy company based in Johannesburg, South Africa and produces innovative sustainable energy and LED lighting solutions with a vision to bring electricity to every community in Africa.
Our goal is to provide reliable affordable power that will help increase food security and drive economic growth.
We aim to deploy clean energy technologies to mechanize agricultural operations, process raw materials to add value, and extend the shelf life of farm produce with less environmental impact.
Grandstage’s mission includes but not limited to:
• Building a world class portfolio of renewable energy assets and be in the top globally.
• Leading the energy transition by providing innovative solutions to our customers.
• Building a culture of excellence by efficient and safe execution of all our projects.
• Always maintain the highest standards of quality and sustainability and act responsibly.
• Fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, and performance to achieve our business goals and be an employer of choice.
The situational analysis is that:
i) About 600 million people in the sub-Saharan Africa live without access to electricity, 80% of which live in remote socially and marginalized areas, where electrification seems infeasible.
ii) Additionally, millions of farmers in developing countries suffer from no, or poor-quality grid power, which limits the productivity and earnings needed to both feed the ever-growing population and to lift millions of farmers and farming communities out of poverty.
iii) Furthermore, globally, billions of tons of food are wasted post-harvest due to lack of preservation and processing methods by farmers, resulting in food shortages.
Grandstage provides the following to complete the Energy-Agricultural Value Chain for the farmer:
• Ensuring farmers have access to quality seedlings, technological know-how and market information.
• Increasing training for farmers on entrepreneurship and farm management, including harvest and post-harvest practices.
• Supporting public research that helps identify agricultural practices and technologies that work best in local environmental and economic conditions.
• Improving rural infrastructure, including secondary roads, to better connect farms and processing sites by working with all stakeholders.
• Facilitating market entry through technical skills development and better access to market information.
• Promoting the development of farm produce byproducts, such as livestock feed from oil press processing residues, which are normally discarded as waste.
• Building a digital marketplace connecting small-scale farmers directly with buyers.