World Bank-IFC initiative promotes solar off-grid lighting in Tanzania
A joint World Bank-IFC programme and innovation, Lighting Africa, has announced the launch of a two-year consumer education campaign in Tanzania to promote solar off-grid lighting and energy products in off-grid communities.
The global financier underlined in a statement that solar energy and lighting products are seeing increased demand in the east African country, where most rural households depend on low quality solar lanterns and other electric products for lighting.
The statement further noted that due to common early breakage, the low quality products have caused consumers to not only lose money, but has also lowered their confidence in the validity of solar products.
Solar off-grid lighting
The campaign, titled ‘Ngaa na Sola – Ndo Mpango Mzima,” (shine with solar, it is the complete deal), is aimed at raising consumer awareness about the benefits of modern, quality solar off-grid lighting, helping communities make informed purchasing decisions.
It will feature a range of warrantied products that meet Lighting Global Quality Standards.
The campaign will also communicate innovative business models in solar energy such as Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) service, a mobile-money platform that lets consumers pay for the products in small instalments, making the product affordable to various income groups. Read more…
While officiating the launch, permanent secretary for ministry of energy and minerals, Prof. James E. Mdoe, said: “This campaign announced by IFC today has come at an opportune time in the quest of accelerating the uptake of the highest quality off grid solar lighting products and services at the least possible cost.
Mdoe continued: “This campaign will help to demonstrate that renewable energy especially solar is both affordable and good for the economy. We are also happy to note that this campaign will advocate product quality something which will be useful in restoring consumers’ confidence.”
Lighting Africa
According to the media reports, the Lighting Africa project is being implemented in ten sub-Saharan African countries and to date, the programme has enabled approximately 20.5 million people to meet their basic electricity needs such as lighting and mobile phone charging with over 13 million solar products sold.
Lighting Africa/Tanzania was rolled out in September 2016 to mobilise the private sector to develop a commercial market for high-quality solar products in the country, and to enable access to cleaner and modern off-grid lighting and energy solutions in the country.
Source: esi-africa
