Café Lumière in Benin, it is aimed at populations currently excluded from national electrification strategies. Due to poverty and isolation, access to electricity is difficult and expensive for them.  In response to the economic and social context of rural areas with no electricity, a collective solution is essential and requires both technical and organisational innovation;
•  Café Lumière promotes local renewable energies (in particular solar photovoltaic) and provides craftsmen, farmers, individuals and public sector organisations with services providing lighting, driving power, cooling, welding, office automation, etc.;
•  Café Lumière is based on a public-private partnership with the involvement of local authorities and the state in its governance, each municipality being associated with the contracting authority and entrusting the management of Café Lumière to a delegated company;
• The delegated manager, a private operator, ensures the balance of accounts and the sustainability of the installation. They are also responsible for the maintenance and periodic renewal of equipment (batteries in particular). Small entrepreneurs benefit from such support to promote economic development; financing solutions suitable for these entrepreneurs are put in place.

These innovations are intended to enable local partners to take ownership of the project to ensure its viability and sustainability.

Café Lumière is a place in the centre of the village where the inhabitants can come and
obtain energy services. The Café Lumière model is composed of 4 elements as modelled in the image on the left:

1. The Café Lumière shop, located at the center of the village and from which a number of energy services are made available to the inhabitants by a local private operator: from solar lamps leasing, cell phone charging, up to SHS, and services such as printing and copy.
2. A mini-power station, producing energy through a mix: solar energy captured by solar PV panels on the roof during the day, stocked in high capacity batteries, in addition to a diesel power generator located close by.
3. An aerial mini-grid powering neighboring households, public buildings (schools, city hall, health center), streetlights.
4. Productive units (rice hullers and other light manufacturing activities such as tool welding).