Akonkwa Mubagwa

organization overview

Winko Solar’s mission is to power and connect Africa’s next generation. Winko Solar delivers off-grid solar power solutions that provide energy and internet connectivity to homes and healthcare, education, and commercial facilities in Africa. By using local labor and organizing globally certified trainings, Winko Solar helps Africans deploy these solutions themselves instead of relying on non-African companies. Winko Solar’s goal is for every African home to have internet access and every major healthcare facility to include a sustainable solar powered energy generation system.

Personal Bio

Akonkwa Mubagwa is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Winko Solar, a Kenyan-headquartered company that specializes in providing commercial to utility-scale solar power, energy storage, and connectivity solutions for healthcare facilities in Africa. A Congolese-born, Belgian citizen, Akonkwa holds a master of business administration from the University of California, Berkeley, a master of science in management from HEC Paris, and a bachelor of science in computer engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain.

After starting his career in computer forensics at companies such as SWIFT, IBM, PWC, and Bain, he launched his own consulting practice specialized in analyzing financial transactions. Through his experiences leading multiple volunteer technology trainings in Africa, Akonkwa saw how unmet energy and communication needs prevented trainee success. He decided to dedicate the rest of his career to tackling the problem of infrastructure. After a decade of experience building solar initiatives in East and West Africa, Akonkwa co-founded Winko Solar to meet Africa’s growing energy demand.