Problem statement:
The daily problem for people earning less than 2$ a day is that they are stuck with dirty kerosenelanterns and/or candles that cause fires and affect peoples health while polluting their environment. They don´t have another option because better solutions are out of their financial means with a salary of usually less than 2$ a day and payment schemes are not available because of their unreliable sources of income.
Our solution:
For people with little purchase power and no access to electricity, Jiro-Ve provides renewable energy, which is accessible and affordable. Accessible via our network of carefully selected and trained franchisees and affordable because our customers pay as little as 0.10$ for our service. In our model everyone benefits with our members saving money while improving their health and our franchisees earning a good stable income.
How it works:
Our model works as following: As Jiro-Ve we have developed a solar powered power-bank charging station. This charger can charge up to 60 powerbanks at the same time and is solar powered. It is connected with a phone that can scan the powerbanks and once it detects a powerbank, open a slot on the powerbank charger. We sell the powerbanks with a little charging cable to charge phones and a little light for only 3$ which is the cost-price to keep it as affordable as possible. Once the customer owns the powerbank they can get it recharged for as little as 0,10$ per charge. 10% of this is the commission for the shopowner who operates the smart charger that rechargesthe powerbank. But more importantly 15% goes back to the customers which will help them to save up for more powerful energy solutions. This way we ensure that through one central solar system a whole village can be served and sets people on a path to grow towards more powerful energy solutions.
Our impact:
Our model supports SDG 1 of eliminating poverty by helping local entrepreneurs to get an additional source of revenue by operating our smart powerbank chargers. Their customers currently come to their shops to buy there groceries but also candles and kerosene. With our model we help them to mitigate away from selling dirty and dangerous forms of lighting to new clean renewable energy.Through this method we have already alleviated 100+ people out of poverty who are currently earning 4x the minimum wage. For our customers we help them to safe money by offering a more affordable alternative for kerosene/candles and the non rechargeable batteries they are buying. And because we let them save up 15% each time they recharge their powerbank we help them to break the cycle of poverty and climb the energy ladder.
We support SDG 3 of good health and well being by eliminatingthe toxic smoke that is emitted by the candles and kerosene people currently use. In addition families are no longer at risk of fire with our safe and clean energy.
We support SDG 13 witheach of our powerbanks avoiding 20kg of CO2 to be emitted in the atmosphere. Furthermore we collect all our powerbanks at the end of their life and take make sure they will be recycled. Finally we willeducate a very large population on the advantages of using renewable energy by making it accessible for them. And while their current carbon footprint is still much smaller than people living in developed countries they are likely to get their at some point in the future. When this will take place our loyaltyprogram will ensure that they will fill this energy need with renewable sources.
But most importantly we support SDG 7 to make clean renewable energy affordable by offering it to our customers for as little as 0.10$ which is less than half of the cost than people currently would pay for their candles/kerosene/phonecharging and radio playing.
Our future goals:
Our objective for the upcoming years are as following:
2019: Reach 486,850 beneficiaries; create 400 jobs; prevent consumption of 35M candles.
2020: Reach 4,0132,000 beneficiaries; create 3000 jobs; prevent consumption of 2.9 billion candles
This year we will further scale our model to the rest of Madagascar but from 2020 we will reach out to other countries as well.
Why we are different:
Jiro-Ve was incorporated in 2014 in Madagascar which is still one of the poorest countries. From the beginning Jiro-Ve has been build bottom up through a very lean method of continues trial and error carefully listening to our customers while providing them with our service. Through this way we have developed a very deep understanding of the market on basis of which we developed our current model. We believe by using the latest technological advancements combined with local entrepreneurship in the form of a franchise, we can help people in developing countries to leapfrog to a much better and sustainable form of energy on a very significant scale.
Jiro-Ve is a Malagasy word for ´do you want light? we got light!´ and this is currently true for 55.000 beneficiaries and the 40+ franchisees that deliver them clean energy. With your help we want to further grow our unique solution to create a true dent in the current industry to ensure people no longer will be trapped in poverty but will be put on a path of growth towards clean energy and financial freedom.
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