Betty Samuel loves making beautiful cakes.
She strives for each cake to be special, whether for a wedding, an anniversary, or a birthday. Her husband, a government civil servant, and their two children live in Taraba State in North Eastern Nigeria. The region is known for its lush green agricultural land. Betty’s business faced a significant downturn from April to October each year due to the area’s tendency to experience heavy flooding during the rainy season. Betty found herself grappling with the reality of being a seasonal business.
In the fall of 2023, Betty met Segilola Vincent, the Business Development Associate for Solar Sister in her area. Betty joined her local Sisterhood Group, which also incorporates a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), enabling her to save money and purchase a number of lamps and clean cookstoves.
With each sale of a solar lamp, Betty found a steady source of income, alleviating the sole dependency on her cake business. She no longer dreads the rainy season, as the demand for clean energy products remains constant throughout the year.
“This business brings me money anytime I sell a single lamp. This has helped my business and has made me not dependent on my cake business. I can boast of money anytime and support my family.”
The impact of Betty’s business goes beyond simply financial gains. She received a new phone, which introduced her to digital sales and marketing and opened up possibilities she hadn’t considered before. With the help of Segilola, her Business Development Associate, Betty learned to leverage her new phone’s capabilities to enhance her cake business and her new clean energy endeavor. With the support of her family, Betty extended her market reach, attracting customers from other communities.
“When visitors come to our home, they are amazed to find light even though we do not have a national energy provider. Becoming a Solar Sister Entrepreneur has transformed my life.”
Betty is one of a number of entrepreneurs who joined Solar Sister as part of the Changemakers Innovation Challenge grant from ACT Foundation that Solar Sister received in October 2023.
The ACT Foundation sponsors the Changemakers Innovation Challenge grant aimed at recognizing and supporting the remarkable efforts of non-profits, businesses, and social enterprises in Africa that are utilizing technology and digital tools to foster social change within their communities. Evidence suggests that organizations employing these digital means to spearhead projects and community development are advancing and establishing a sustainable impact.
This initiative welcomed applications from non-profits and social enterprises throughout Africa that are employing innovative technological and digital strategies to develop social solutions.
Solar Sister’s project aims to recruit, train, and support fifty new women entrepreneurs and provide business digital skills training to seventy women entrepreneurs across ten communities in Taraba, Benue, and Nassarawa States in Nigeria. Solar Sister is tackling the widening digital gap faced by women entrepreneurs in remote areas through the introduction of a Digital Literacy Program.
This program equips these entrepreneurs with the necessary knowledge, skills, confidence, and technological tools (both hardware and software) needed to digitize and expand their businesses. The training will encompass various key areas, including online marketing, digital sales strategies, gathering customer data digitally, electronic bookkeeping, and navigating new social media platforms. Designed to complement Solar Sister’s existing curriculum, these modules will be integrated into the broader training framework to benefit a larger number of entrepreneurs. The initiative targets twenty current and fifty prospective women entrepreneurs, aiming to significantly enhance their business operations through digital empowerment.
Solar Sister was the first-place winner among the three Changemakers Innovation Challenge winners selected for grant funding and announced in October 2023. This financial support is designated for the expansion of their innovative solutions into various communities.
Reporting on the Changemaker Innovation Challenge is Oisereime Lloyd, Communications Manager, Solar Sister Nigeria.