SOLAR LANTERNS TRANSFORMS LIFE IN RURAL TANZANIA

A.A. MNZAVA1

1Commission of Science and Technology (COSTECH) P.o.box 4302 Kijitonyama, Dar es salaam, Tanzania

(amnzava@costech.or.tz or andrewmnzava@gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

It is estimated that 75% of the Tanzanian population live in rural areas where the access of electricity is only 2.5% according to the Household Budget Survey Report of 2007. The current population of the country is around 40 million. This implies that around 29 million people in Tanzania have no access to electricity services and the fact is that they are denied from accessing the development opportunities that they would have otherwise achieved if they had access to reliable electricity services. The problem of limited access to modern energy can be resolved via expanded use of RLTs. With LED technology, solar lanterns are cheaper and provide better quality light than lanterns previously. Targeting the four regions that make up Tanzania’s southern highlands (Rukwa, Mbeya, Iringa and Ruvuma), the project purpose was to establish 40 revolving loan funds with Saving and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS) and capitalize those funds with $1,000 worth of RLTs. 800 new homes to receive a new solar lantern with every six-month loan cycle.

KEYWORDS: Revolving Loan Funds 4 Rural Lighting Technologies (RLF4RLT) INTRODUCTION

Camco Advisory Services Limited, with the support of the Rural Energy Agency (REA) through the 2010 Lighting Rural Tanzania (LRT) Competition implemented a Rural Lighting Technology (RLT) project aimed at dealing with the problem of limited access to modern energy in rural communities. The project aimed at facilitating access to solar lanterns by rural households, businesses and institutions’ residing in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands by establishing 40 revolving loan funds with Saving and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS) and capitalizing those funds with US$ 1,000 worth of RLTs. The project’s main thrust was to promote the use of RLTs. With Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology, solar lanterns are cheaper and provide better quality light than lanterns previously. It was expected that the SACCOSs would make use of the revolving loan fund money to further the RLTs business for the sake of their members and other rural people as well as for the SACCOSs themselves. Making RLTs available to rural people on credit was meant to increase the number of rural people accessing modern energy. The project was managed and implemented from Inception to Evaluation by Andrew A Mnzava (who currently works as Senior Research officer as Energy Program Officer at Commission of Science and Technology-COSTECH, in Tanzania) reporting to Jeff Felten, Camco Tanzania managing director.

The project worked with SACCOSs, assisting them in developing revolving loan funds for the provision of RLTs on credit to members. In collaboration with Government Cooperative Officers, 40 strong SACCOS were identified. Each SACCOS was given US$ 500 worth of solar lanterns,

approximately 10 lamps. The SACCOS provided the lamps to members on a three to six-month credit basis. After the first successful loan cycle the project injected a second $500 worth of seed capital into the fund. The SACCOS groups are earning interest revenue on the loans. SACCO’s leaders were given RLT demonstrations and received educational brochures and catalogues of the currently available solar lanterns, raising awareness.

The purpose of the Revolving Loan Funds for Rural Lighting Technologies (RLF4RLT) project was fourfold:

a) To create awareness of RLTs and assist SACCOS with procurement in order to assure good quality products which passed the lighting Africa test at bulk prices.

b) To facilitate access to solar lanterns by rural households, businesses and institutions’ residing in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands by establishing 40 revolving loan funds with SACCOS and capitalize those funds with $1,000 worth of RLTs.

c) In collaboration with SACCOS to develop management documents for the revolving loan funds. d) To enhance the RLT market growth.

1 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

The project implementation was done in a span of one year covering five major parts, which can be called the methodologies of implementing the project. These included the following: The preparation of projects activity plan, SACCOS Identification, awareness campaign and Capacity building, procurement of solar lanterns monitoring and evaluation and finally Impact assessment.

1.1 Project Activity Plan

The project activity plan can be seen in the table no 1, the table explains the activities of each stage of project implementation as well as the milestone achievements and outputs.

Table 1: Project activities and their corresponding outputs Sub-activity Description Project Output Outcomes

Identification of 40 strong SACCOS

Review existing SACCOS, membership, capitalization and willingness to participate in the project. Selection

40 strong SACCOS recruited based upon pre-determined criteria and scoring method

40 SACCOS project partners ready for project implementation

Achievement milestone #1

Awareness creation

Awareness creation activities

People made aware of existing RLT products, advantages and disadvantages

RLT market growth

Capacity Building

Training of SACCOS on bookkeeping and overall project management

40 SACCOS managers trained in loan fund bookkeeping and project management

Increased capacity among SACCOS managers

Lantern procurement and distribution

Selection and procurement of solar lanterns. Distribution to members

Approximately 400 lanterns sold to SACCOS members on credit

RLT market growth, household savings on kerosene, reduced GHG emissions

Achievement milestone #2

Project monitoring

Continuous monitoring of project implementation, including bookkeeping and reimbursements

Quantitative and qualitative information on project implementation collected, collated and reported on

Lessons learned and project improved

Second procurement

Based upon successful repayments, 2nd lantern procurement and distribution to members

Approximately 800 lanterns sold to SACCOS members on credit

RLT market growth, household savings on kerosene, reduced GHG emissions

Impact assessment

Impacts assessed for further improvement and possible replication

Quantitative and qualitative information on project implementation collected, collated and reported on

Lessons learned for potential project replication

Achievement milestone #3 1.2 SACCOS Identification

During the SACCOS identification phase, which was done in January 2011, meetings were held between district’s cooperate officers and Camco consultant in each district of the southern highlands (there are 20 districts in total) The following criteria were used during the SACCOS identification:

• SACCOS whose members have no access to electricity • SACCOS with strong management • With experience of at least three years and above • Good history of collecting depts. • Enough cash circulation which will not tempt the group to misuse the funds purposed for solar

lanterns Teachers and other public servants (health workers) who work and live in rural areas without electricity, their SACCOS groups were given priority but still the groups needed to meet the above-mentioned criteria.

1.3 Capacity Building and awareness campaign

The awareness campaign and capacity building was conducted to all the identified SACCOS groups in southern highlands from 23rd March to 21st April 2011. The training was attended by District cooperate officers; SACCOS group leaders and some groups were presented by few members. The Training was a success in all districts of the four regions, and the project was well accepted by all groups (participants list is attached in excel sheet). Besides of the success the following concerns were raised during the Training: Procedures for transportation of dealers (Parcel transporters agents), they must be educated about the product they transport for the safety of the Solar Lanterns: solar lanterns support to be considered, supposed a product has a problem and the guarantee is over , How do the agents check the warranty of the products ,The possibilities of getting larger systems. Communications between the solar lanterns supplier and the SACCOS groups to be well established and support to be available through district agents who sells the solar products for repair support. Figure 1 shows some photos of capacity buildings and awareness creation of solar lanterns in one of the Region in Southern Highlands

Figure 1: One of the meetings on capacity building and awareness creation in Rukwa Region

1.4 Procurement of Solar lanterns

For the first procurement of the first disbursement, each SACCOS was given a total of 10 solar lanterns of the following types;

• Sunking – 2 sets of lanterns (this type of Sunking can not charge a cell phone) • Fire fly – 3 sets of lanterns (have a cell phone charging pins) • Nova S250- 3 sets of lanterns (have a cell phone charging pins) • Power Pack- 2 sets of lanterns (each power pack have four lights and cell phone charging pins)

The second procurement was different depending on the interests of the SACCOS groups as shown in figure 2 below and table two shows the specifications of the types of lanterns procured:

Figure 2: Lanterns Procured from July-Nov 2011

TYPES OF LANTERNS SUPPLIED TO THE SACCOS JULY TO NOV 2011

271, 35%

120, 15%80, 10%

120, 15%

200, 25%

Power Pack (5W) Firefly Sun King Nova S250 Power Pack (2.5W)

Table 2: Types of lanterns procured and their specifications TYPE OF LANTERN SPECIFICA TIONS

SUNKING

• One Sunny day of charging providing 16hours of Lighting

• Three years rechargeable battery • No fuse bulbs, using LED technology • Low power mode for cloudy days • Can be used when cooking, studying,

walking etc • One year warranty

NOVA S250

• Mobile phone charging • Four brightness settings (up to 100 hours of

lighting) • 8.5V , 1.3 polycrystalline solar panel • Smart battery indicator LED • Deep discharge and overcharge protection • One year warranty

• At 16 lumens this affordable Firefly is brighter than previous desk lamps.

• The longer lasting rechargeable battery will last for up to 1000 cycles.

• The 1.0W solar panel will recharge the battery inside the lamp in 4-6 hours with direct bright sunlight

• One year warranty • Can charge a mobile phone

POWERPACK JUNIOR

• At 59 lumens each, the matrix lamps supply room lighting for hours and are brighter than previous matrix lamps.

• The rechargeable battery, with build in overcharge and over discharge protection, will last for 1000 cycles, or 4 to 5 years depending upon use.

• The 2.5W solar panel will recharge the 3.2V battery in 8 to 10 hours of direct bright sunlight the panel will also charge a mobile phone.

• A radio can be operated from the port on the

1.5 Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact assessment

Monitoring and evaluation was conducted in all districts of the southern highlands. The impact assessment was done with 20 SACCOS. The following four figures (which are self explanatory) show the findings:

Figure 3: Perception of RLT prices

battery. The PowaPack Junior Matrix system uses an innovative plug and play wire system, including switch wires, for easy installation.

• Manufacturer product guarantee for 1 year.

POWERPACK 5W

• At 45 lumens each, the matrix lamps supply room lighting for hours and are brighter than previous matrix lamps.

• The rechargeable battery, with built in over charge and over discharge protection will provide 400 cycles depending upon usage.

• The 5.0W solar panel will recharge the 12V 5.0Ah battery in 8 to 10 hours of direct bright sunlight depending upon use. The system includes mobile phone adapters to charge mobile phones from the battery.

• A radio can be operated from the port on the battery. If the battery is used to run a radio or recharge a mobile phone, the lighting hours will be impacted.

• The PowaPack 5W home lighting system uses an innovative plug and play wire system, including switch wires, for easy installation.

• Manufacturer product guarantee for 1 year.

0  

5  

10  

15  

20  

Not  affordable   Afforrdable  on  average  

Affordable   Highly  affordable  

No

of S

AC

CO

S

Figure 4: Availability of Solar lanterns in rural areas

Figure 4: Monthly Savings on Kerosene as a result of using Solar Lanterns

0  

2  

4  

6  

8  

10  

12  

14  

16  

Not  available   some=mes  available  in  most  

cases  

always  available  

No  of  SAC

COS  

Series1  

above  20,000  Tshs  17%  

between  10,000-­‐20,000Tshs  

41%  

between  5,000-­‐10,000Tshs  

5%  

less  than  5,000Tshs  37%  

Figure 5: The use of Solar Lanterns in rural areas

2 Conclusion

Because of the Revolving Loan fund for the solar lanterns through SACCOS groups, a lot of households have been able to afford to own a solar lantern. Several households have saved a lot of money, which were spent buying kerosene, which is dangerous to their health and environment. Also several households have saved money they used to pay to charge their mobile phones from a nearby shop. They usually pay approximately 30cents USD every time they charge their mobile phones. Apart from that a lot of students now can easily do their homework at night.

This is a kind of Project which can be easily replicated to several regions in third world countries to help people in rural areas to transform their livelihood through access of affordable and reliable renewable energy which is environmental friendly and safe for their health

3 Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the role-played by Rural Energy Agency (REA) in Tanzania who facilitated on project implementation; also I would like to acknowledge World Bank who funded the project through (REA). Finally I would like to acknowledge the assistance and work done by Jeff Felten Camco director in Tanzania, Prof Kimambo and Dr Mwaluko for spending time on conducting the impact assessment of the project

REFERENCES

Mnzava A, (2012) Revolving loan fund for rural lighting technology report for southern Highlands submitted to REA

Prof Kimambo CZM and Dr Mwaluko, G.S (2012) Impact assessment on Revolving loan for rural lighting technology project, submitted to Camco advisory services Tanzania Ltd and REA.

Ligh=ng,  Charging  mobile  phone  and  

radio  45%  

Ligh=ng  only  12%  

Ligh=ng  and  Charging  a  mobile  

phone  40%  

Lantern  is  Faulty  3%