Meet the Client

By Aisling O'Reilly

During our time in Dar, we will be working with students on a client project for a local SME, called RISE.

Who are RISE?

RISE is a distribution and finance company that works with rural communities to increasing access to sustainable products and services that add value. They are currently at the pilot stage, at the end of which, they will have installed 3,667 Pay As You Go (PAYG) Solar Home Systems (SHS) to rural farmers in Northern and Southern Tanzania.  

Who do RISE help?

Many rural communities in East Africa don't have access to electricity due to the high costs of extending utility infrastructure. Instead, they use kerosene & candles for lighting, wood & charcoal for cooking and entrepreneurs lack access to affordable power. These lamps release large amounts of carbon and are proven to have a negative impact on the lungs and eyesight of long term users. It was not feasible to add the rural farmers to the national electricity grid, so RISE has developed an alternative way to give them the benefits of electricity.

Triple Bottom Line Impact

Economic: The total savings per year of TSH 302,400 (equivalent to $150.2) for some farmers will contribute an additional 50% to their yearly income which illustrates a significant impact to their socioeconomic progression.

Environmental: One RISE SHS provides three lights and phone charging capacity. After the pilot, RISE will be offsetting 3.3 tons of carbon per year from 11,001 LED lamps replacing an equivalent amount of kerosene lamps.

Social: RISE will impact 3,667 families; over 15,000 people will benefit from having access to clean, safe reliable light and phone charging. Each household replaces kerosene lighting with a SHS and has health benefits from improved lighting and reduced black carbon fumes.

Client Project

We will be running two projects with UDSM students to maximise RISE’s impact in rural Tanzania. The first is a geographical growth strategy to help RISE expand organically through and then penetrate more of East Africa. The second is a competitor analysis to give RISE greater insight into their target market.