By day, Rifkatu Bawa teaches in a government school in Kaduna State, Nigeria. After hours, she’s on her bike, navigating dirt paths and bush trails to bring solar light to rural homes. At 51, this mother of six is building a business that has changed everything.
Just a few years ago, Rifkatu’s teaching salary and small business couldn’t cover her six children’s basic needs. After losing her husband, even steady work wasn’t enough to put sufficient meals on the table.
That changed in 2021 when she joined Solar Sister with ₦40,000 (about $25) worth of products. With each sale, she earned more, and through the advanced training program, her profits and confidence grew. Rifkatu cites the training in marketing and promotion, as well as digital literacy, as pivotal lessons in how to best advertise her brand on social media.
“Now I can purchase solar products on credit. That gave me the power to reach more customers and make more profit. With that profit, I buy food and clothes, support my children, and even contribute to church.
I market my business by traveling to off-grid communities in town, and I also advertise it on social media. Most of my customers need solar home systems, clean cookstoves, phone charging, and small lamps that are of good quality but at a very reasonable price. My best-selling products are smaller lamps. People like them because they are very simple to use and are very good for cooking, selling, and reading at night.
I also take clean energy products to my village, where I exchange them for farm produce during harvest. I store and sell them later when prices rise. This ability to barter and sell later has helped me build real capital. I have even registered my business with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Solar Sister is a good business for every woman out there. Every woman should take this opportunity with Solar Sister so we can reduce many of the health challenges our children and we go through because of using unhealthy bush lamps for reading and local stoves for cooking.
My dream is to open a big family shop for my Solar Sister business where we can sell different varieties of clean energy products. I am saving from the profit I am making now to open the shop.
My proudest moment as a businesswoman is making a profit to put food on the table and seeing people getting access to my products.”
Chioma Ome, Country Director for Nigeria, shares Rifkatu’s story.