proponents of the activity presented the concept note for this activity as an entry in the
UNDP/BOI (Nigeria) Access to Renewable Energy(AtRE) challenge that was open to businesses to
apply for in all 11 UNDP focal states in Nigeria, SOSAI won for this activity in one of the
states, Niger using this business model presented here and because of this the AtRE board
awarded $30,000 to each winner and the funds generated are planned to be used in developing a
bankable business plan that will be presented to Nigerian banks to fund these activities with
low interest loans. So far a lot of big banks in Nigeria are involved with this activity and
consultants have been presented to winners to assist in developing these business plans
starting with the feasibility studies. This activity has imported, using the funds won at the
AtRE several samples of solar lamps from different producers to try and test which one will be
acceptable by the people and test their adaptability and durability. For the solar home systems
these are being assembled in Nigeria using very minimum imported materials to promote
employment creation and innovation. Trainees have been trained by German based Arwed Millz who
was in Nigeria between June and November 2011 to train youth in assembling these solar home
systems. By using these products, this activity will create a demand for these solar home
systems improving demand for the products providing a market for the trainees while also
promoting the businesses that are using the products as they will constantly be in business
with no power failure. The type of businesses proposed to have their generators replaced with
these solar home systems are people who charge phones using generators that are very polluting
and small saloons and cold stores who sell frozen foods. This activity will adapt major
promotion activities in carrying out this activity and the funds generated from the sales of
solar lamps and that from the small businesses will be used to further promote this activity in
neighboring communities ensuring large scalability and adaptation by the people.
This activity will use market dynamics like installment payments and relative cost price of
products and develop working value chains that will carry the activity further than the
immediate community it was started in.
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This activity is currently at the feasibility study and test stage. Because of the size
planned and the amount of money involved, the A small number of the members of the community
who sell or trade their wares at night using kerosene lamps have had their lamps replaced
with efficient LED solar lamps as a test of the durability of the lamps and the
people’s adaptability to use them. This has been going on for about 6 weeks and after
testing our staff comes back with large orders from the customers and neighbors of the users
of these lamps. Some of the women said they use the lamps now both at home and in their place
of business and they are very happy with the performance so far. This has reduced the
incidence of fires from open flames of kerosene lamps and the heat generated from these
kerosene lamps are also averted while using the solar lamps. The elimination of indoor air
pollution ensures better child and maternal health, children can do their school studies in
good conditions and this project will ensure financial security for the people and families
as they will now spend very little in getting access to lighting by not buying kerosene as
regularly as they used to and for those who needed wood to make open fires for lighting, the
wood will be further saved protecting our natural resource. As stated earlier, cleaner air
will be promoted and cleaner communities as well with the drastic reduction in indoor air
pollution which is the third killer of women and Children in sub-saharan after HIV and
malaria. Responsible for the death of 1.6 million people according to WHO reports.
In this pilot phase of replacing existing late night business people’s source of
lighting with the solar lamps has made us realize that most of these small businesses are
owned and run by women thus the project ensures economic empowerment and health benefits to
women who were disadvantaged in this regard.
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The potential of scaling up and the impacts therefrom has been the major motivating factor
behind the proposal and planning for the successful implementation of this activity. The need
for solar products is enormous. When one puts the problem in numbers, those without
electricity pay hundreds of times more per lumen -- the unit measurement of visible light
emitted by a source -- than those who enjoy free-flowing electricity.
While it might seem that the obvious solution is to expand electricity grids, in recent years
more environmentally sustainable and immediately accessible alternatives have emerged. Chief
among them is the solar-powered light emitting diode (LED) lamp.
This is a must have for most communities in the BOP because the cost of effective lighting
and power source had been prohibitive, but with the model of this activity this will be a
thing of the past because people will be given opportunities to get access to electricity as
lighting for homes and for businesses. Because of the high energy poverty of Nigeria a lot of
communities had been living in the dark, and as such the scaling up of the products and
services is very important to improve livelihoods and the environment at large.
Because the micro entrepreneurs and business owners will be supported by the funds generated
for this activity to either start the business of selling the products or for technology
acquisition, the beauty of this activity is to make it easy for them to pay so that there
would be a larger uptake. When the micro entrepreneurs are able to pay out their loans and
have expanded considerably in the startup area, the funds will be pooled together and another
activity area will be systematically picked out, and then business people and micro
entrepreneurs also selected to run the activity as was done in the last activity area. This
is planned to be continued to ensure full scale up and sustainability of the activity which
is going to transform the communities where these activities are successfully implemented by
improving health, ensuring a cleaner air and more environmentally friendly communities. The
Award from AtRE will give a huge push to this activity and the awareness raised by the AtRE
team will ensure that banks feel more comfortable about extending low interest loans to these
activities.
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