Renewable energy at the grass root

 

Solar Jooce/ACREST lamp & phone charger versus wick lamp at local fish market in Lagos




Mr. Hassan a micro business owner in Lagos State gets introduced to Solar Jooce/ ACREST phone charging lamps made by rural women in Oyo State (about 4.5 hours away by road).

 

 

Solar Jooce/ ACREST lamps made entirely from locally available components, except for the solar panels. The larger grey lamp has phone charging capabilities in addition to lighting, while the smaller design provides just lighting

 

 

 

Mr. Hassan (with lamp overhead) acquired a Solar Jooce/ACREST lamp and sold some units to his friends on behalf of the rural women in Oyo State. Mr Hassan insists that the phone charging capability of the lamp is an absolute "life saver"

London - UKTI Green-Tech road show (11th -15th Feb, 2013)

Relief!...recovered couple shots from UKTI Green Tech Road Show (London, Nottingham, Manchester)

L - R: Segun Adaju (President/CEO BlueOcean), J. Japheth Omojuwa (Chief strategist Alpha Reach), Hon. Patricia Kenneth-Divine (U.K trade & Investment), Dr. Mohamed Ali Ekhlat (Deputy Minister of Electricity & Renewable Energy - Libya), Dave Agbakoba (CEO Solar Jooce), Ibrahim Salau (MD Environmental accord)

 

L - R: Dave Agbakoba (Solar Jooce), Reza Shaybani (Chairman, British Photovoltaic Association) 

 

Regional Bio-Energy Summit [Abuja - Nigeria]

FARA (www.fara-africa.org), in conjunction with the Nigerian government, recently hosted a conference, tagged: Regional Dialogue on Renewable Energy Technology for Increased Agricultural Productivity and Sustainable Development.

Experts from Nigeria and across the globe exchanged ideas and action plans on ways that renewable and sustainable technologies could:

a) rejuvenate agricultural productivity in Africa, which has been in regression in the last 2 decades.

b)enable Africa, with its rich endowment of abundant natural, mineral and human resources, produce enough food to feed itself and generate foreign exchange earnings from the export/sale of surpluses.

R-L: Dave Agbakoba (Solar Jooce) with Prince Ike E Ubaka(Deputy National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria - AFAN)

Dave and Kenton Dashiell of IITA, with Dr A.B Salifu (Director general CSIR -Ghana) in background

Panelists, Day 2. L-R: Dave Agbakoba (Nigeria); representative from Morroco; Gifty Baaba Asmah (Ghana); Dipal Barua (Bangladesh); Hervé Azemtsa (Cameroun)

They did it! Oyo rural ladies graduate

Five long weeks - from community sensitisation to graduation - the rural ladies from Oyo state stayed with the class and rose to assemble two varieties of solar lanterns.

The graduation ceremony was emotional, with "Alhaja Jesu" saying she is illiterate, but after assembling solar lanterns from scratch, feels like a whole new educated person.

Then there's Miss Alawode who breaks into song when the class gets difficult, and helps everyone overcome. She's also the fastest 'assembler', churning out more units than anyone else.

We cannot forget the trainee who has already invested in tools for her new solar micro-business - and wrote a mission statement to boot.

Or the trainer, Momanyi, who is forever positive, pushing the ladies gently to believe they can scale any hurdle. His work ethic is amazing.

How about Dave, Solar Jooce CEO, giving workshop direction, tirelessly providing supplies, and replacing every broken multimetre and soldering iron?

Kudos to Bishop O. O. Oduntan who rallied the ladies of his Parish to perform.

Five wonderful weeks of hard work, team spirit, and exhilarating achievement.

The work has just begun, though, as we shepherd the ladies long-term to ensure they master their craft.

Thank you BATN Foundation, for your support. And a big thanks to Hertz for transporting us between Iseyin and Lagos the entire time.

The lady solar tech trainees were transported to Lagos on Friday, July 06, 2012 to take part in a training seminar conducted by Mrs. Yemi OWOLABI (Executive Director of Finance, Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria).

The training session, delivered in Yoruba, was titled "Growing your new solar business".

The ladies received valuable strategy information on how to package, finance and market their products.

They were then taken back to the Cow Market at Iseyin (Oyo state) to get a practical feel of what they had been told about in the seminar (how to sell their products and if, indeed, there was a market for it). They were delighted to get a very positive response! Solar really is the way to go.

Slowly Emerging - Rural Women Solar Technicians

Resistors, switches, capacitors, breadboards, diodes. These rural women from Oyo state of Nigeria are on top of things, and they are so excited to be learning a new skill. They have been segmented into four groups and the competitive streak is already at play. Who knew? Solar Jooce's rural women's solar training project is breeding a proudly Nigerian crop of rural women technicians, and probably bringing the sleepy towns of Iseyin, Kajola, Itesiwaju and Oyo West back to life. It just doesn't get better than that. We continue to thank our key sponsor - BATN Foundation; our logistics sponsor - the Hertz corporation/ C& I Leasing Nigeria; our PR sponsor - Sesema PR; and the brilliant Oyo state co-ordinator - the tireless Bishop of Ajayi Crowther Diocese, Bishop O. O. Oduntan.

Rural Women's Solar Training: Day 01

Fantastic first day of training. The class started with us wondering how the women would cope with technical details. There was absolutely no cause for alarm. The women (selected from 4 Local Government areas of Oyo state) were amazing, showing just how quickly they could grasp the way components of a solar appliance worked together. Very encouraging.