If rural people are to discard widespread poverty, the solution will lie in rapid economic growth. Our mission is to create small-scale, manageable and replicable solar projects to contribute to Nigeria's long-term progress. For any rural development schemes to succeed, it must be based in the village as well as managed and owned by those whom it serves.
Solar Jooce volunteer, David Osokolo, takes Loveth Azubuike (Selection Officer, Rural Women Training) through the set-up of a basic solar unit.
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Solar Jooce Ankara Ladies: Fighting Poverty with Enterprise | Empowering Rural Women
Like in many parts of the world, women in rural Nigeria do all of the hard work.
Our approach is to harness the uncommon strength, determination and graceful multitasking skills that rural women have, and develop them into basic 'Solar Engineers'. Their level of literacy and age will not matter. They could be completely illiterate or could be grandmothers.
It has been proven that educational qualifications are not needed by people with rural or poor backgrounds to acquire skills that can be of service to their community.
Under our model for women empowerment, females (Solar Jooce Ankara Ladies) will be trained within the African continent, with a view to developing a proudly Nigerian solution to power challenges. Immediately after training, the new 'Ankara Lady' will have a "Solar Hut" (workshop) set up for her in her village where she will begin to fabricate, sell, repair and maintain basic solar items for use by primary healthcare centres, homes and small businesses in her community.
The vision is for rural communities to now pool the funds used in the past to buy kerosene, to purchase the new solar lanterns fabricated by one of their own.
Solar Jooce aims to convert every kerosene lantern in rural Nigeria to a solar unit, in 10 years - and to raise an army of 'Solar Jooce Ankara Ladies', well skilled to solarise their communities, and to create several islands of light across Nigeria.
Microfinance
A solar light - a simple device that illuminates even the humblest hut - changes the lives of a rural populace that has never had any light or very little of it. The only question is, how can the poorest of the poor afford basic solar home devices, or more sophisticated items such as a solar drier, a solar cooker, or a solar-powered water pump? Devices which may cost the equivalent of several years' earnings.
While Solar Jooce relies on donations from the corporate sector to get simple solar appliances to rural areas, we realise that these resources are not endless, and have devised a plan to remove financial and technical barriers to the spread of solar systems in rural Nigeria.
Solar Jooce will partner with a Microfinance bank to provide finance to cash-poor villagers - who often have no access to banking systems - so that they can purchase solar appliances to run their micro-businesses.
The Microfinance bank will have to be convinced that solar electricity will empower borrowers economically and help them repay their loans. Again, it has been proven that rural people will put away the amount they would have used in buying kerosene to repay their loans. This kind of flexible financial structure is sure to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in people, and at the same time enable many more to access solar technology.
