Solar Sister Nigeria Empowers 1,522 Women
Solar Sister Nigeria, a social enterprise that helps women to distribute clean energy products to underserved communities across Africa, announced recently that it has empowered 1,522 micro and small businesses in Nigeria from 2013 when it started operations till date. The beneficiaries, currently in about 20 states, have been trained in sales and marketing of solar and renewable energy products.
At its annual dinner, held in Abuja recently, to honour of some of its star entrepreneurs, the country manager of Solar Sister Nigeria, Mrs. Olasimbo Sojinrin, said the mission of the company is to provide access to energy where there is none or where five hours of electricity per day is currently not available in the country. She said:
“This is our fifth year in operations in Nigeria and we are pleased that Solar Sister Entrepreneurs (SSEs), 82{54d2fcdcd494adb6982253be6fe8d5492e5f586157f419110131714f9092ec60} of whom are women, have used solar energy products to make life easy for people in the rural areas while building a viable business for themselves in the process. Many of these entrepreneurs have today built businesses worth over N1m.” “We are interested in providing access in areas where energy is a big challenge; where there are less than five hours of electricity supply per day.
People in these communities usually resort to lighting their home, using dangerous and harmful fuels like kerosene and candles. Clean energy is a way to mitigate the problem of climate change as well as get people to reap the financial benefits of clean energy in their communities. “Women are our target audience and this is deliberate because women are the managers of energy at home.
They are responsible for how the house is lit and how food is cooked and so they are the right drivers of this initiative.” As for the clean stoves and other clean-energy products, “We are working with trusted and quality-verified manufacturers. With our number and volume, we are able to negotiate great prices, so our entrepreneurs have access to the best prices in their community, and they don’t need to travel far distances to get these products.
The training manager of Solar Sister Nigeria, Mrs Chioma Ome said that “Since we are dealing mostly with people in the rural areas, we have been able to surmount the language challenge by appointing Business Development Associates (BDAs) who are fluent in the local languages of the target communities. We provide free training for the entrepreneurs once a month in their locations. This is part of our efforts to support them to grow their business. Typically, every woman feels that she knows how to do business, but this training helps to support their basic business education.”
Source – Leadership
