Addressing community development with Renewable Energy

In Northern Nigeria where I am from, indoor air pollution is the third leading cause of death and it's a direct result of the way we cook and light our homes. When I got older, through work I learned that two hours of exposure to fumes and smoke from these burned fuels is the equivalent of smoking an entire pack of cigarettes.

That really woke me up. That day I started my journey of buying and selling solar lanterns. Founded SOSAI Renewable Energies, we've expanded into deploying Solar Home units and mini grids in rural communities of northern Nigeria.

So far, we've deployed energy solutions to over 500,000 people out of about 100 million people in Northern Nigeria. More can still be done by the replication of the minigrid project in more communities.

Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, with a GDP of USD569 billion (2014). However, its power sector is performing below the level of its peer countries. Over half of the population (~55%) has no access to grid-connected electricity and those who are connected to the grid suffer extensive power outages. This lack of access to electricity/power outage causes the people to seek for alternatives such as generator and this alternative is expensive, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous to their health in the long-run.

To address this energy challenge and for a sustainable economy, SOSAI Renewable Energies try to bridge the energy gap in disadvantaged societies by providing them with affordable, reliable and clean energy in the form of Solar off grid systems like solar lamps, solar home systems and mini grids.

As the solar energy market increases, so will the volume of discarded products, which will invariably lead to efficiency in the use of resources and the reduction of green house gas emissions.

Our ultimate goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by air pollution due to the combustion of fossil fuels by leveraging environmentally sustainable materials.

The population we are working with currently are the people in rural and peri-urban areas. They are majorly low income earners who engage in farming and petty trading. We often call for meetings with the heads of each communities we are working with, to talk about their major needs after which we streamline them to the needs we have solutions for.

Our low carbon efficient cook-stoves will help reduce by at least 70 percent the smoke inhaled during open fire cooking and help reduce to about 80 percent tree felling in these communities, consequently helping to curb deforestation in the northern part of Nigeria which currently is a major problem. Also, our solar systems will help eliminate health hazards associated with the use of kerosene lanterns especially among children who read with them.

We proffer tailor-made solutions to the people in communities, especially northern Nigeria and the country as a whole. At SOSAI we believe that Renewable Energy can be affordable, efficient and sustainable; preserving our environment is the ultimate goal. Bridging the energy gap and balancing the energy deficit in disadvantaged societies is what drives us at SOSAI. 

Our products ranges from Improved cookstoves to solar lamps, Solar Home kits and bigger Solar Powered technologies like Mini Grids. SOSAI Renewable Energies Company is one of the largest distributors of Renewable energy products to end-users in Nigeria taking leadership, especially in the north. 

Our distribution channels have been the Local women in the communities where we work and in the situation where the community has a restriction on women maybe by Purdah or others, We work with Men, especially those who already work as agents of payment channels. In executing our activities we ensure that the customer life journey is taken highly into consideration and this has ensured that the SOSAI brand envisages great success with its customers and agents when deploying our products, driving a large amount of demand.

The Innovation about the Sosai business is the deployment method. Innovation in technology is only as good as the impact it makes an impact can only come from the use of the product. Most companies manufacture great products but do not have the market knowledge to deploy. Sosai through our work in Community entry has a target Market that trusts us to deliver as the Integrity we encompass has ensured their trust. The Female Energy Entrepreneurs deployment strategy, as well as collections integration Model,  will ensure Sosai has a central view on not just collections, but agents, defaulters, and tamperings.

The core technology we use at SOSAI is the Pay as You Go(PAY-G) system, where Customers pay as low as 0.4USD daily or 12 USD monthly in order to access electricity to carry out their daily activities. 

The pay-as-you-go method is a way to circumvent initial investment hurdles for customers who could previously not afford a solar system. Customers pay off their instalment plan in a number of months with regular mobile payments. After complete pay off, the customers become owners of the system. The remote monitoring technology, using a GSM modem included in the solar controller, allows for potential maintenance problems to be addressed. The IT backend also tracks payment patterns and enables the systems to be locked remotely in case of overdue accounts – thus decreasing the risk of payment default. The potential of the mobile PAYG approach to give people or communities who can otherwise not afford the initial investment of expensive equipment is almost limitless.

With the integration of the Fraym tool as afforded to us by the Nigeria Off Grid Market Acceleration Program (NoMAP), we identify communities easier thereby reducing operational costs, and aiding greater impact in lesser time. 

The total cost of products is paid over a period of 24-36 months at N4000 monthly by the households. Our Agents ensure the recovery of the funds making a 5% commission of the funds

We also run sponsored advert on Facebook and Instagram.

Acting as a Major distributor to a number of Lighting Global certified Solar technology Manufacturers and Improved cook stove Manufacturers as well, Sosai has so far distributed over 15,000 varying sizes of Solar items ranging from pico Lamps to 5Kw units. We have distributed over 60,000 improved cookstoves and over 15,000 water filters. Impacting upon the lives of over 500,000 people in northern Nigeria. We also with support from USADF have implemented two Mini grid projects in two communities in Northern Nigeria, Tied to productive use technologies.

We know for each product the savings in CO2, the number of women selling and how much each unit saves as compared to either generators or Kerosene lanterns. We also use Lumeter, solaris and Angaza systems for the back end. All these systems show the metrics being used and how to measure the impact the products make in the lives of people.

The current number of people we have served is 500,000

The number of people we would serve in the next one year is another 170,000

The number of people we would serve in the next 5years is 6,250,000

We plan to ensure sustainable development for communities by deploying varying renewable energy products that answer to economic growth and solutions impacting on over 8,000,000 lives cummulatively with our existing numbers within the next 5 years.  We want to ensure economic growth and livelihoods development through our work.

The major barrier that plagues us at Sosai is the working capital to ensure a constant flow of inventory that would ensure that catalytic change we would like to to have in our Target communities. The Financial barrier is quite intense and this is limiting out growth. The other barrier is Technically inclined as we need more partners to support training our staff in country to ensure the quality that would give us the desired sustainable development we want.

We are speaking with potential and existing partners and seeking support constantly while applying for grants and opportunities out there. With our partners independent energy in the Netherlands, we are trying to raise Dutch Good Growth Fund to work in supplying products and training a technical team In country. We need more support and we are welcome to learnings and advice 

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We have 12 full time staffs and we hire 5 or more adhoc staffs when the need arises. We also have a number of agents and artisans in communities alongside our over 79 female energy entrepreneurs sales force

Our team is made up of intellectual and experienced personnel who are dedicated to growing the business. The team comprises of

The Managing Director, Mrs. Habiba Ali who holds a bachelor degree in accounting, a master’s degree in banking and finance and currently a dissertation -level PhD student in management (finance). Been in the renewable energy (RE) industry since 2005.

The General Manager, Safiya Aliyu who joined the Renewable Energy industry in 2006. A certified program manager

The Administrative Manager who holds a bachelor degree in accounting 
Joined the Renewable Energy industry in 2012. Undergone different training to improve his efficiency in the Renewable Energy field

Solar Nigeria Program of DFID

USADF power Africa

USAID Nigerian Power Sector Program.

Deloitte

The above Partners are mainly providing funding and structural support.

C-Quest  Capital is the Coordinating Managing Entity of the UNFCCC CDM project we implemented In Nigeria deploying over 80,000 improved cook stoves 

Our key customers are dwellers of rural and peri-urban areas and homeowners who want to install solar panels and businesses wanting to increase their use of green power. Our major beneficiary is the people who get to use clean, efficient and reliable energy and by extension the environment.

We provide value to the population we serve by:

1. Empowering Women and youth in the communities as the on sellers of our products ensuring they generate some income while deploying our solutions.

2. Selling solar products such as solar lamps and solar home system

3. Offering Consultancy and Technical services

4. Installation and maintenance of solar systems

5. Supplying Productive use technologies such as solar dryers to farmers, Solar powered kiosk and solar powered hub for phone charging

6. Deployment of bigger Solar Powered technologies like Mini Grids

7. Building and distribution of Energy efficient improved cookstoves

We have developed a financial model that allows for the inflow of funds from several sources. Income is earned from product sales and is used to cover operating costs and marketing and distribution costs. Another major revenue generating pathway is grant funding due to the fact that our work is very intertwined with environmental health and sustainability. 

In the case of our Pay-As-You-Go (PAY-G) systems, For every product we deploy, we ensure there is a premium that is added to the total cost which as the people make repayments over time, we also get our funds returned with some profit ensuring that we can do this again. However, due to the low incomes of target population in the "low income client as market model" achieving financial viability can be challenging. One of the challenges we face is being pay as you go which takes some minimum two years there is a constant need to have financing to grow. But to expand our model more funds have to be deployed. 

Solve can help SOSAI Renewable Energies effort to bring balance to energy deficit by connecting us to relevant stakeholders (funding partners, technology development partners, social proof advocates, industry authorities, policymakers, permitting agencies, and more).

Our initial hurdles are financial and business development in nature.

Did not select other

Green Light planet

Niwa manufacturer

We would like to partner with the above organizations by being their distributor.

We would also like to partner with More Grant making organization and Venture capital

The electrical grid is arguably the most complex machine on Earth and is evolving rapidly from its centralized history of the last century. However, the grid is changing not only physically with the addition of large amounts of variable renewable energy, but in the use of new intelligent control algorithms. Although AI is in its early stages of implementation, it is poised to revolutionize the way we produce, transmit and consume renewable energy.

The current grid was not designed to accommodate the diversity of renewable energy sources and the inherent variability of solar and wind creates challenges in meeting variable load. The utility industry is increasingly confronted with variable supply trying to match variable load. It is our supposition that AI can help mitigate this challenge and make renewable energy an equal player in providing the countries electricity.

Ways that AI methods can improve the integration and adoption of renewable energy resulting in a modernized electrical grid supporting the reliability and resilience of the overall grid are as follows:

1. AI will improve centralized control centers  

2. AI will allow new capabilities for integrating microgrids

3. AI drives new smart consumer devices and value streams and

4. AI optimization techniques will improve the placement and resulting value of Distributed Renewable Energy

AI is necessary to advance our solution because these new methods and products will allow the distribution system to integrate high penetration levels of renewable energy, lowered carbon footprints and more consumer choices

We would use the funds to invest in reaching out to more communities and finding out what their needs are using design thinking models to understand the people's needs to ensure we get the right tailor made solutions deployed 

The women's price money would be used to carry out more women in community development trainings as well as supporting cooperatives to formalise their associations and deploy better business growth trainings for them

Not Applicable