About WattWise Africa
The Research Behind the Business
WattWise Africa was not built from a business idea. It was built from years of evidence that Africa's energy efficiency gap is one of the most expensive and most solvable problems on the continent.
The Story
My name is Mamontsi Kolobe. I spent years studying Africa's energy crisis at the academic level — not from textbooks, but through primary research conducted in the field, across real data, for real communities and businesses.
My master's thesis, published by the National University of Lesotho's Energy Resource Centre, tracked Lesotho's progress against the United Nations SDG7 energy efficiency targets. The findings were clear and troubling: Lesotho — like much of Africa — is significantly behind on every measurable energy efficiency indicator.
But the research also revealed something else. The gap is not primarily a supply problem. It is a waste problem. Businesses and households across Africa are paying for energy they are not using — and most have no idea it is happening.
That finding became impossible to leave in a thesis. It became WattWise Africa.
The Credentials
🏆 UNDP Clean Energy Innovator — STEAM 2024, the United Nations Development Programme recognised me as a Clean Energy Innovator through the STEAM programme in Lesotho. Of the innovators selected across multiple sectors, I represented the clean energy category — a recognition that confirmed the real-world relevance of my research.
🎓MSc Sustainable Energy — National University of Lesotho SDG7 Researcher — NUL Energy Resource Centre. My Master of Science in Sustainable Energy from the National University of Lesotho is not simply an academic qualification — it is the intellectual foundation upon which every service WattWise Africa delivers is built. Where most consultants offer opinions shaped by general experience, every audit report, every carbon assessment, and every efficiency recommendation I produce is grounded in rigorous academic methodology, primary data analysis, and a deep understanding of the science behind energy systems in the African context.
My thesis — Tracking the Achievement of SDG7 Progress for Lesotho Using Energy Indicators for Sustainable Development — was not a theoretical exercise. It was a systematic investigation into the real gap between Lesotho's energy efficiency performance and the global targets the country has committed to achieving. The findings, published by the NUL Energy Resource Centre, revealed what African businesses experience silently every month — that the energy consumed and the energy productively used are rarely the same thing, and the difference carries a precise and quantifiable cost.
This research is what separates WattWise Africa from any general sustainability consultant operating in this market. The MSc gave me the tools to measure what most people only estimate, to benchmark what most people only describe, and to express in dollars what most people leave in kilowatt hours. When a client receives a WattWise Africa audit report, they are receiving the output of years of academic training applied directly to their specific facility, their specific bills, and their specific context.
✈️ EAIF 2025, Get.Invest sponsored, Uganda. Fully sponsored to attend the Energy Access Investment Forum in Uganda — one of Africa's premier energy investment gatherings. Being selected and funded to attend placed me in rooms with energy investors, policymakers, and innovators from across the continent.
📢 LEAD 2025 — Recognised by Get.invest Lesotho. At the Lesotho Energy Access Dialogue 2025, my work was recognised live as critical for Lesotho's national energy development — not by colleagues, but by the institutions driving energy access policy in this country.
🏢 EU (European Union) co-funded project — Project Officer. Before founding WattWise Africa, I served as a Project Officer at African Clean Energy on a project co-funded by the European Union. That experience gave me direct, hands-on exposure to how energy projects are structured, funded, and delivered at an institutional level across Southern Africa.
🏢 Head of Sustainability and Project Development — at Mahlaseli Energy — a senior leadership role where I was responsible for sustainability strategy and project development in the energy sector.
📢 Speaker — Machabeng College — invited by the National University of Lesotho's Energy Resource Centre to speak at Machabeng College's renewable energy career guidance programme — addressing students on opportunities in renewable energy and entrepreneurship in the energy sector. This invitation from one of Lesotho's leading academic energy institutions reflects the institutional recognition of my research and professional standing in the country's sustainable energy landscape. Speaking to the next generation of energy professionals is not separate from the work of WattWise Africa — it is the same mission expressed differently. The professionals who will close Africa's energy efficiency gap are sitting in classrooms today, and equipping them with both the knowledge and the entrepreneurial vision to act on it is as important as the audits we deliver to businesses.
🌍 ImpactHer Alumna — Lagos, Nigeria — Women Entrepreneurship Training. One of Africa's leading organisations for women entrepreneurs — which grounds my understanding of WattWise Africa's most important target market.
🌍 UPG Biashara Class of 2025 — Certified — Global cohort. My credentials extend beyond the energy sector into entrepreneurship and global recognition and leadership. I am a certified entrepreneur from the UPG Biashara Class of 2025 — selected from over 1,400 global applicants representing 81 countries.
The Mission
WattWise Africa exists because African businesses deserve access to the same quality of energy intelligence that large corporations pay international consultancies millions for — delivered affordably, online, in 48 hours, by someone who has spent years studying this specific problem in this specific market.
We do not sell software. We do not sell solar panels. We sell clarity — the precise knowledge of where your energy money is going and exactly what to do about it.
The Promise
Every report we deliver is built on primary research, real benchmark data, and professional energy analysis. We do not guess. We do not generalise. We find your specific waste, calculate your specific loss, and give you a specific plan. That is the WattWise Africa standard.
"Find your energy waste. Keep the savings."
📧 hello@wattwiseafrica.com | 💬 WhatsApp: Click to message "AUDIT" | 🌍 wattwiseafrica.com