Tonye Irims

Tonye Irims (born 2 December 1970) is a cleantech entrepreneur and the CEO of WiSolar, a multinational renewable energy company in Africa.
Early life and education
His foundational schooling was at Corona nursery & primary school, Apapa, and Imola Day primary school, Alasia, Lagos.
Irims attended Command Secondary School, Jos, Nigeria from 1981 to 1986.
In 1988, he was accepted into the University of Port Harcourt for a Bachelors Program in marketing which he completed in 1991. He further completed a Clean Power specialization program from the Imperial College London, and a Blockchain specialization from INSEAD.
Career
Irims moved to South Africa in 1994 when he was 23. His father, late Capt. B.T Irimagha was a master mariner who served under the Nigerian navy and subsequently Mobil and NNPC Nigeria. His mother, late Muriel Irimagha (Ama-Opuorubo) was a businesswoman of royal Bonny kingdom descent.
In South Africa, he did odd jobs here and there. He later joined Housewares Exclusive, a multi-level marketing company in 1996 which was later defunct. He modeled from 2001 to 2004 where he was introduced to Dr. Mike Adenuga a Nigerian billionaire industrialist, who later became his business mentor and for whom he did volunteer work until 2011. In 2007, Irims introduced the first dual SIM mobile phone in South Africa which paved the way for the acceptance and saturation of other dual SIM devices.
In 2011, Irims failed at an attempt to launch FriendsChip, a social payment app in the United States, and returned to South Africa.
Irims founded WiSolar in 2016 after many experiences of being cut off the electricity grid with hefty reconnection fees. In December 2020, he registered a patent for prepaid solar electricity system for variable loads. The system enables users purchase low-cost solar electricity per kwh as required for larger households and commercial users via their banking app or recharge vouchers. The initial projected capital investment for the Solar-as-a-service prepaid system is $40M per country per annum within Africa.
Irims is the first successful Nigerian franchisor in South Africa.
Personal life
Tonye Irims the first of six boys born to his father. He lost three of his brothers in tragic circumstances.
"DaTonye" means God's light. Irims describes himself as a maverick with a non-conformist approach to life.

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