IDS is working jointly with JUMEME Rural Power Supply Ltd, a pioneering company developing and managing solar PV hybrid mini-grids in Tanzania, and NGO Tanzanian Gender and Sustainable Energy Network (TANGSEN) to implement a business model for off-grid electricity supply that combines financial viability with gender equity.
From the start of its activities in Tanzania, JUMEME has been seeking a business model that enables financial sustainability of its mini-grids and, at the same time, affordable tariffs for its consumers. Productive uses are essential, but experience in the region shows that they do not emerge spontaneously when mini-grids arrive. Therefore, village incomes do not increase with electricity and consumers cannot pay for it without reducing expenses for other items. To make matters worse, the lack of appropriate equipment reduces productivity, leading to example crop losses and food rotting without refrigeration.
With support from partners, JUMEME has experimented with several models, and has come up with an original approach. The KeyMaker Model is a new way of looking at the mini-grid business that emphasizes the commercial opportunities that mini-grids unlock. The mini-grid company works with the village community to exploit and market local natural resources for the benefit of all partners. Through this project, IDS will support JUMEME to implement the KeyMaker model in the island of Maisome, where the local fishing sector requires electricity for refrigeration, fish feed production machines and for water pumps used by fish feedstock production farmers. JUMEME will also develop a fish farming activity to tackle overfishing in Lake Victoria and contribute to further stability of fishing income.
The overall aims of the project are to:
- Improve the economic performance of solar mini-grids in islands in Lake Victoria.
- Promote economic development brought about by improved energy access in target communities.
- Promote women’s economic empowerment through the productive use of energy.
- Experiment with a gendered approach to the KeyMaker model, that includes women in the KeyMaker activities’ value chains.
- Provide the community of Maisome with access to equipment to enable sustainable fishing, and with capabilities to start and run these new activities.
- Document and quantify the impact of this approach for the economics of the mini-grid and the whole community.
- Disseminate insights gained through a diversity of media.
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