With only 36% of Tanzanians having access to electricity (21% in rural areas) and a vast majority of the country expected to remain off-grid for the coming decades, innovative financing mechanisms are needed to spur last-mile distribution of clean energy solutions. In collaboration with EnDev and DFID, SNV has established a market for solar PV technologies in the rural areas of Tanzania’s Lake Zone.
The Results-Based Financing (RBF) programme aims to improve market access to and use of quality solar devices, tested under Lighting Global standards, for rural and off-grid households. Central to the programme is a Results-Based Financing facility, a partnership between the Tanzanian Investment Bank and Solaris Tanzania (operations subsidiary of Solaris Offgrid), making available the necessary financial support for the development of its operation. The RBF facility focuses on the application of a temporary financial product in mainstream banking that serves to assist the private sector in developing the still nascent market for solar products in rural areas of Tanzania's Lake Victoria Zone.
Charlène Giraudier, in charge of the operations subsidiary of Solaris Offgrid, “The Results-Based Finance model has boosted the provision of quality solar home systems in the Lake-Zone region. The SNV team assisted in the testing of our products under the industry's Lighting Global standards and with a local presence, they could also verify the quality of the last-mile service provided. SNV can monitor quantity of installations and disburse funding per unit - directly correlating funding with impact.” As Solaris Offgrid also has a training programme for Tanzanian employees, it also benefits from further funding from SNV which support such efforts to build local talent in the country. “…we are happy to be part of the initiative which develops the market in a product agnostic way, ultimately benefiting the customers with a variety of solutions to suit their needs,” adds Charlène. "The funding has contributed to the provision of Solaris's modular Solar Home Systems to over 10,000 lake-zone citizens".
About SNV:
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is a not-for-profit international development organisation, working in Agriculture, Energy, and Water, Sanitation & Hygiene. Founded in The Netherlands in 1965. More details of the RBF programme can be found here: http://www.snv.org/project/results-based-financing-rbf-rural-market-development-pico-solar
About Solaris Offgrid :
Solaris Offgrid supports distributors of essential services to build strong customer traction and greater relations with investors through flexible and inclusive Paygo solutions, designed for last-mile operations. Adopting a bottom up approach in the design of its solutions and creating synergies with a strong network of partners to solve last-mile challenges, the company has already deployed Paygo solutions in more than 30 countries through PaygOps, Solaris Offgrid in-house software solution built “In the Field, for the Field” and its product development services. Leading reference in the off-grid solar market, PaygOps, is engineered to deliver modular and interoperable solutions to address off-grid energy access challenges and distribution complexity. For more information on PaygOps, please contact enquiries@paygops.com.