What SolarAid can learn from established social enterprises in Tanzania

The kikoi factory shop, Ifakara.

Last week I wrote about the women weavers of Ifakara. I thought I'd finish off by saying that although I do not have the exact information, I do believe the Ifakara kikoi is a self-sustaining enterprise. I would be curious to see if we can leverage the distribution network of organisations such as the kikoi cooperative to distribute our solar panels. If we can do this then we can keep the distribution cost relatively low, while providing additional income sources for women and under-privileged groups in remote areas. We can also gain lessons learned from an established social enterprise in rural Tanzania.

The kikoi factory is just one example of an existing non-traditional network into which we can tap to distribute solar products. There are many throughout Tanzania. The challenge is on how to recruit, organise and train them to be microsolar distributers.

My distribution strategy (to be completed in the next couple of months) will highlight strategies on how we can best reach these organisations and leverage existing distribution networks to bring solar power to Tanzania. I'm looking forward to presenting this strategy to the SolarAid team.