Our target market is West Africa.
We have started in Senegal, other West African countries will follow. Our target group is the rural population, which has now and probably also in the near future no access to energy.
We have started with two products (see products), which can be bought or financed over a period of 12 or 24 months. Our purpose is to reduce poverty. That’s why we target people who have a big demand for light and electricity but cannot meet the demands on their own.
The definition of poverty is quite precise.
We talk about people that earn less than two dollars a day. Also for these people energy is becoming more and more expensive. Sometimes it can be more than 50 % of their income.
We are also talking about a so called Poverty Penalty, an additional burden for people in poverty. They are getting less quality for considerably higher costs than people in industrialized countries. In many cases people in poverty have to pay ten times as much for energy which is even not reliable.
How can our customers finance the micro credits?
The payment of the installments is possible through saving costs for the actual energy sources like kerosene, petrol lamps, batteries and charcoal. They are expensive, difficult to get, harmful for the population and for the environment. In addition our customers can run small electrical appliances to start a little business on their own.
This business model can therefore be described as help for self-empowerment.
