10,000 Arusha households to get solar power

Arusha. Mobisol Tanzania Limited will this year connect at least 10,000 households with solar power in Arusha, Manyara, Kilimanjaro and Mwanza regions, it was announced here at the weekend.

The company started its solar home systems (SHS) programme last year and until last week over 2,300 clients were getting electricity through solar energy gadgets installed in their homes, the firm’s managing director Allan Demello said.

The progamme was initiated by the company in collaboration with Kakute Limited, an Arusha-based technology awareness and distribution company and aimed to provide efficient solar energy in homes.

Mr Demello revealed this when speaking during a ceremony in which 20 customers of the firm, who have met their targets, were awarded with certificates for their role in promoting the company’s products in the solar electrification drive.

“We’ll have 10,000 new clients this year,” he told The Citizen during an event dubbed ‘Pamoja Twaangaza Tanzania’ at the Arusha Institute.

“At present over 2,300 clients in Tanzania have received a ready-to-use solar home system and currently pay off the monthly instalments using their mobile phones”.

Mobisol Tanzania Limited, which is a subsidiary of a German solar energy giant, Mobisol GmbH, started operations in the country in 2010 until the middle of last year when it embarked on full-scale operations through which it installed solar power systems in households in Arusha and its environs.

Each system costs between Sh500,000 and Sh2.4 million.

Those whose homes are fitted with the gadgets have to pay a downward payment of 10 to 15 per cent the cost of the system. The SHS owners enjoy an extended warranty of three years for the battery and solar controller.

“Mobisol customers are overwhelmingly satisfied with the many ways reliable solar energy has improved their lives. Families can now illuminate their homes,” he said.