T
he winner of First National Bank´s (FNB) inaugural
Ideas Can Help competition, Michael Suttner, has
come up with a solution – The Lightie – to replace
paraffin as a light source. Across Africa 600 million
people spend up to 25% of their income
to light their homes with paraffin, and more
than two million deaths a year are caused by
paraffin-related accidents. His test tube-shaped
solar light bulb is brilliant not only because
of its design, but because of his distribution
concept. Piggy-backing on the most efficient
distribution network in Africa, namely via Coca
Cola, Suttner’s invention fits into the neck
of a two-litre plastic Coke bottle, using
the container as a sturdy stand-up lamp.
An eight-hour charge provides 40 hours of light at 120
lumens, enough to brighten a 120m² room. Once in full
production the Lightie should cost between R80 and R90
per unit, the cost of an hour´s worth of paraffin. The
award from FNB includes a R500,000 prize plus
a year of business services help from the bank's
Vumela Enterprise Development Fund. Suttner is
getting a lot of (deserved) attention. He also won
the Design Indaba Citizenship Competition (ABSA
social entrepreneur of the year award) and earned
R100,000 towards his invention as well as the National
Sasol/TIA Step-Up contest in the Green Energy Sector
which is providing him with almost R1,000,000 worth
of value. He is also still in the running for two big
competitions in 2014. Watch this space.
To find out more about The Lightie, go to
www.thelightie.com
The Lightie is a patentpending Picosolar light
bulb, which screws
into a soda bottle
creating a clean, lowcost lantern.
SWEET SPOT
Along with Citigroup, a number of major
international investment banks, such as
Deutsche Bank, UBS and Morgan Stanley,
are forecasting that European equities will rise by
double-digit percentage gains in the coming year,
outstripping the gains for their US counterparts. Low
valuations, continued strong central-bank support and
anticipated solid earnings growth are all likely to lead the
benchmark indexes to multiyear highs in 2014. The Wall
Street Journal’s MarketWatch.com says, “Forget about weak
economic growth in the Euro zone, deflation worries and
political turmoil – now it’s Europe buying time.”
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