It’s a particularly warm day in Chanika, Tanzania.  I’m standing outside of an EGG-energy “station”—a simple storefront boasting an orange sign that bears the company’s logo.  A young boy, maybe 12 or 13, glides up on his bicycle with a bundle secured tightly to the handlebars.  Taking the bundle, he walks through EGG’s open door and sits down in front of the station’s lone desk.  He is here  to swap his family’s battery, a new source of energy for homes and businesses living off of Tanzania’s utility-scale grid.

I’m traveling with a classmate for two weeks, wrapping up a semester-long project with EGG through MIT Sloan’s Entrepreneurs for International Development (SEID) club.  Along with two other classmates, who weren’t able to join us on the ground, we worked with EGG’s management team to review and refine the company’s sales process.  After three years in operation, EGG is cognizant of the need to ramp up their sales and institute a structured training and development program for their growing sales staff.

As with any start-up, sales are the backbone of growth and profitability.  Without an increasing customer base, companies do not live long past their 3^rd or 4^th birthdays.  For EGG, sales have proved challenging for many reasons, both expected and unexpected.

Among the expected: doing business in semi-urban and rural areas around Tanzanian’s dispersed geography is simply time-consuming.  Roads are unreliable and the distance between villages is significant.  Then there’s the matter of convincing new prospects that EGG’s products are better than their existing electricity solutions (typically kerosene for lighting), and that they should spend their spare shillings on such a seemingly grand investment.

Once EGG establishes a foothold in one area, customers inevitably follow, but rarely at a pace that promises scale—at least not yet.  The challenge, unexpected or not, is to tap into the social networks of existing customers, effectively turning them into spokespeople for EGG’s products.  Whether through social, business or religious circles, the expectation is that an EGG client, who has already embraced and experienced the advantages of battery or solar-powered energy, can bring others to the light, so to speak.

EGG has started down this path by aggressively increasing the number of “EGG Distributors” or independent agents in key villages and towns.  Typically the proprietors of small shops or kiosks (“duka” in Swahili), EGG agents simply allot shelf space to EGG batteries, serving as a swap spot for clients in the area.  As EGG expands this “distributor” or agent network, so too will the company’s footprint—and its potential for long-term sustainability.

After spending two weeks between the office in Dar es Salaam and their remote stations, our team developed a workshop for EGG’s staff.  Our goal was to energize the team as much as to impart some of that golden b-school wisdom recently absorbed in our Cambridge classrooms.  Translated into Swahili, we covered the elements of a successful pitch, the “funnel” of customer acquisition, and the four P’s of effective marketing.  But mostly, we got everyone talking (also in Swahili) about what was working and what wasn’t quite there yet.  Like any thoughtful start-up, EGG’s success is due in part to its ability to assess and iterate on its sales model.  For two days, EGG’s headquarters were filled with just that—the chatter and real-time iteration of a team committed to bringing affordable power to off-grid families and business.

As the company expands their distributor network and continues to train their staff, EGG will have plenty to celebrate when their 4^th birthday rolls around.

We’ve primarily focused on establishing systems to support our battery technology. Charge controllers at our installations will extend the lifespan of our batteries and make their behavior more predictable. Now that we have a handle on how to protect our batteries in the field (lots of TLC and better swap tracking), we can take a deep dive into modifying other elements in our product offerings.

We source from both local and foreign suppliers to fulfill one of our other core values: accessibility (our third value is service). We think that selling affordable and dependable products is the best way to reach the majority of Tanzanians. Locally-sourced materials don’t always satisfy these standards, but sometimes they’re much better. We offer two examples below: light bulbs and frames.

Our first priority in sourcing light bulbs is energy demand: we want our batteries to last up to a week under normal conditions. This means that the light bulbs need to be very efficient and draw as little power out of our systems as possible. Although priced a bit higher than CFLs, LEDs fit our standards for accessibility and reliability. Manufacturers in China sent sample bulbs to us three months ago, and we’ve been testing the products in our office to see how they operate with our other equipment. We left the bulbs on day and night, a little “survival of the fittest” test, but the bulbs held up for the entire summer. Our next step was to poll customers at our stations to see which bulb they preferred. Finally we tested the illumination and diffusion of light in on-site applications. The winner? Best in show: the people’s choice bulb turned out to be the technical frontrunner, too. Match point!

The finalists: The 4th bulb on the shelf is the newest member of the EGG-energy team.

Simultaneously we redesigned the frames that attach the solar panels to the roof (this is like the Olympics, multiple events happening at the same time). Previously, we sent the dimensions to a local Tanzanian metalworker to have them made. However, we have panels of different sizes so this was a bit inefficient. How do we improve this process? Using more adaptable materials that our technicians can put together on-site. We purchase simple materials from local metalworkers and have them cut pieces to standard lengths suitable for our panels and for the typical roof construction of our customers. Treating metal with a rust-proof coating and standardizing our sealant methods ensures that this new design takes the gold, satisfying our customers for the lifetime of the system. The technicians are especially excited about the new frames because they are easier to adjust and can adapt to roofs of different pitches.

Our first installation using the new frame.

Reliable and accessible products are the best way to serve our customers. Although the London Olympics have come to a close (Tanzania wasn’t able to bring any medals home this year), EGG-energy will keep performing trials to find new ways to improve our track records. Umeme kwa maisha bora!

How to accomplish such a feat in just six weeks of time? By making a lot of trips to the field, of course.

The trio interviewed currently active customers, inactive customers and households without EGG-energy systems (yet!), whose responses were used to establish a baseline. The questionnaire was designed to gather quantitative metrics regarding usage, swapping and spending on other energy sources as well as information on qualitative metrics addressing employment, health and education. The group, accompanied by a Swahili translator, usually traveled to the homes of our users to administer the survey and see the system in action, ensuring that they received honest responses from customers. While the team’s preferred mode of transport was dalladalla (minibus) and foot, taxis and motorbikes were utilized on occasion.

Over five weeks, the team talked to over 100 people at our four sites (Msanga, Iringa, Mbagala and Chanika). With this substantial sample, the analysis that they’ll perform will give the company great insight into the behaviors and preferences of our customers: How much kerosene is EGG-energy’s service displacing? What modifications would make the service more convenient? Are our prices appropriate for our users? What other products should we offer? How is the quality of our service perceived? How can we improve our operations? The group will present their findings to EGG-energy management this week, who will then be able to refine EGG’s strategy to better meet the need of the population that we want to serve. After that, our French friends will return to Paris with the satisfaction of having done a fantastic job: “Mission accomplie!”

We swapped the valuable contributions of Anne and Jodie (thank you to both of them for their excellent insights and development of our systems and processes) for the veteran knowledge of Yi Wang (welcome back!) and rookie Kirsten Hagfors (authoring this blog post). Sophia swapped time in the office for time at home, preparing for the arrival of her first child. We wish her the best.

We swapped batteries without discharge controls for those with them. The recent delivery of this long sought solution to inadequately deep discharge of the batteries that we rent out to our customers will help extend the lifetime of our inventory and reduce the frequency at which our customers need to exchange devices for newly charged ones.

We swapped our newest EGG-team addition, rural African community expert Joel Lagoutte sent by BlueEnergy (BE) to identify community sites where we could collaborate with BE to set up electricity generation capacities that would be large enough to power productive uses, between fieldwork in Iringa and brainstorming sessions in Dar es Salaam.

We swapped CEO Jamie Yang between conferences, spreading information about the current business and future endeavors of EGG.

And, most importantly, we continued to swap unreliable and expensive traditional lighting sources for consistent and cost-effective lighting solutions, listening to the consumer feedback that our end-users provide so as to drive our mission forward. How can we make swapping more convenient? What modifications in our current operations will help attract new customers, or meet current customer demands better?

One example of a more flexible and less-costly lighting solution is a solar lantern. While our home lighting systems offer the most reliable and efficient way for users to illuminate their households, a solar lantern has lower upfront costs and can be used both within and outside of the house. Reports indicate that increasing the hours of study time for children or enabling parents to prepare a meal by the light of a pollutant-free lantern improves the livelihoods of users.(1)

Through our initial research of solar lantern business opportunities, we identified Greenlight Planet as a manufacturer of a durable and inexpensive solar-powered lantern. The first chance to try these out in the field came to us through Songas, a Tanzanian natural gas company. Songas purchased several Sun King Pro solar lanterns to be distributed to a community of people that had been displaced from their village following a flood. We traveled to a school 15 km outside of the Dar es Salaam city center to deliver the lanterns to the eldest child in each displaced family that had been identified by Songas. Our staff organized the distribution process and demonstrated the proper use and maintenance of the lanterns. It was an exciting and rewarding application of our potential product offerings. We’ll be sure to check in with the community to see how the lanterns are performing and used. Although Greenlight Planet offers a generous warranty on their products, we don’t foresee having to take advantage of this service.

And now we swap May for June, looking forward to the opportunities we’ll be pursuing during this cool and dry season.

Representatives from Songas, Mabwe Pande Primary School and High School and EGG-energy present the solar-charged lanterns.

Eager recipients!

Our field team tells students about the Sun King solar-charged lanterns and demonstrates how to operate and use them.

15Wp solar panel facing North running 3 LED lights and one DC phone charger.

I have been working with Mr. Said Kibwana, our local partner in charge of the Iringa franchise  for the past month. This area has different particularities, which Mr. Kibwana shared with us, that led EGG to look into offering small-scale decentralized solar system installations:

1. With altitude higher than 1,500 meters above sea level, Iringa is located in a mountainous region. The surrounding off-grid villages are located in either cloudy and rainy hills or in very sunny plains. Given this situation and considering both the remoteness and the difficult access of some villages, offering both battery-swapping services and individual solar systems installation & maintenance allows the EGG franchise in Iringa to provide services that can address the diverse needs of local residents.
2. Many EGG potential customers are farmers. They do not have much capital available for large expenses, except on one or two occasions a year that coincide with the harvest season. Selling their harvest provides them with a large one-time income, and they usually spend a big part of it on different systems expected to improve their living conditions. At that time, they have enough money to afford individual solar installations, which are the preferred systems preferred of those that live in sunny areas.
3. Mr Kibwana and I went to see existing solar installations. Most of them were broken or not working well. This sorry sight is the result of the absence of organizations that could provide good after sales services and good solar technicians to the Iringa area. Consequently, people are disappointed with this technology. The need for qualified technicians and follow up maintenance was strongly communicated by the local communities.

As a result of these observations, EGG-energy decided to design and offer solar home systems as an alternative to the battery swapping service for areas where this technology is appropriated. Because EGG is focused on providing electrical services to several customer segments, three solar options have been created, in the same way as we have designed several battery swapping systems:

1. 15Wp Solar system: 1,2 or 3 LED low consumption bulbs, and possibility to charge a cell-phone.
2. 40Wp Solar system:  cell-phone charging businesses (up to 15 phones per day).
3. 100Wp solar system: big color TV, 1 to 6 LED bulbs and possibility to charge a cell-phone.

Battery swapping customers and solar customers can benefit from all EGG services:

• Battery swapping customers: many of them don’t have the upfront capital to invest in solar systems directly. EGG gives them the opportunity to first buy a battery swapping service and later upgrade it to solar for a small additional fee.

• Solar customers: in case of extended cloudy and rainy weather (solar systems are designed to have an autonomy between 3 and 7 days), EGG offers to charge their battery for a small fee and provide them with a temporary one while theirs is being charged.

To help stimulate the local economy and keep costs within our customers’ affordability, we attempt to minimize our reliance on imported products. To that end, EGG decided to work with local metalworkers to have the solar system frames made in Iringa. After one week of work with them explaining EGG requirements, we arrived to a good prototype. A few more adjustments are needed to validate the final EGG frame design and start the standardized frame production in Iringa, but we’re off to a great start!

I will keep reporting from time to time on progress at the Iringa franchise with respect to new solar and battery swapping projects.

Till then,

Hugo

In addition to Jodie and me, two new employees were hired a few weeks ago to help us with corporate support activities in Dar es Salaam:

Sophia Nyoni, office assistant:

Sophia started to work for EGG-energy 3 weeks ago. After discovering our activities and visiting our stations in Mbagala and Chanika, she is now responsible for gathering, archiving and classifying operational data, translating internal and external documents, conducting surveys on the field and running errands. Welcome Sophia!

About Sophia:

Sophia is a 23 years old Tanzanian. After finishing her advanced level studies in Loyola secondary school, she worked as a data collector in a faith based organisation known as Catholic Relief Services (helping the most vulnerable children in orphans). After this first experience, she was hired as a field officer in Global Fund “PACT” organisation (also working to improve children’s lives). Before joining EGG-energy, Sophia was working as a research assistant in an organisation called “AMEND”, which is responsible for road traffic and injuries.

Herry Nasser, Office Manager and Accounts Assistant:

Herry started to work with EGG-energy at the beginning of February. He is in charge of payroll and manages our company’s relationships with local institutions regarding staff and administrative issues. More specifically, he is responsible for all human resources related issues. He will also assist with company accounting and purchasing. Welcome Herry!

About Herry:

Herry, 28 years old, was born in Tanzania and has lived in many Southern African countries. He first went to high school in Zimbabwe and then to college in South Africa. After getting a diploma in sales and marketing and a diploma in Information Technology in Cape Town, South Africa, Herry got his first job in a travel agency in Cape Town as a Sales and Marketing officer.  Then he came back to live in Dar Es Salaam and worked more than 5 years for a Health insurance company, first as a corporate relationship officer and then as an office manager. Just before EGG-energy, Herry spent a few months in England which he enjoyed discovering.

When none of us is out in the field, there are now 8 persons in the office. It was time to move to a larger company space, which we are scheduled to do very soon.

EGG-energy head quarter team:

Jamie Yang (CEO), Solomon Faraji (COO), Samson Msami (Subscription Manager), Sophia & Herry, Jodie Wu (Consultant Sales & Marketing), 2 fellows: Anne Raymond and myself.

My next post will certainly be written from the new office and we look forward to hosting you there!

Till then,

Hugo

Said Kibwana in front of his franchise's office and charging station

When I traveled to Iringa last November, I enjoyed a peaceful stay at Said Kibwana’s farm in Ingomtwa, a village about 60km outside Iringa town.  He was using his farmhouse as a base for EGG-energy operations at the time, as the franchise was still new and he had not yet rented an office in town.  For the past two months, Mr. Kibwana has been adding customers in villages around Ingomtwa, streamlining his record-keeping and distribution systems, and setting up an office on one of Iringa’s busiest streets.  I returned to Iringa at the end of January for an 10-day visit.  Though I was not able to watch the sunset over newly plowed corn fields or see my breath in the cold morning air as I could at the farm, I was able to help Kibwana ready the new station and prepare to expand the franchise.

The EGG station and its neighbors

The Iringa franchise currently has 19 customers.  Each customer has at least one battery for lights, and six have an additional battery to power a mobile phone charging business.  Due to our initial focus in and around Ingomtwa, all current customers are located in villages at least 20km from the charging station in Iringa.  To bring EGG’s service to these rural areas, Kibwana has developed an innovative distribution network.  He charges the batteries at the grid-connected station in Iringa, then uses buses, motorcycles, bicycles and people on foot to deliver the batteries to distributors in several different villages.  Customers can then swap their battery at the local distributor. This distribution network demonstrates one of the benefits of working with a local franchisee, as use of public transport to lower distribution costs requires Kibwana’s in-depth knowledge of the area and close relationships with local people.

Street view east from station along Kalenga Rd.

Over the next month, we plan to strengthen EGG-energy’s presence in Iringa town, and to acquire customers who live in the semi-urban area close to the new station.  Although grid electricity is available in the town, many residents cannot afford it.  Given the relatively high population density we hope to build a base of EGG customers within easy walking or bicycling distance of the new station.  These customers will help increase the size and reputation of the Kibwana’s EGG-energy franchise in Iringa without adding strain to the rural distribution network.

Hugo Niccolai and I will continue to report on Iringa as the station grows.

View of Iringa from the hills above town

My work for EGG-energy is part of a 2 year project, EnR’Sud (http://enrsud.posterous.com/), which I designed for a year before setting off to work for 5 different social organizations specialized in Decentralized Rural Electrification (DRE) in South-East Asia, Africa and South America. EnR’Sud stands for Energies Renouvelables’ Sud, which is French for Renewable Energy – South. Its sponsors include French companies active in the energy sector such as Schneider Electric and électricité de France (EDF), a group of engineering schools named l’Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse as well as other institutions and private companies (http://enrsud.posterous.com/pages/les-partenaires).

My goal for the EnR’Sud project is to learn from successful DRE companies and projects around the world so as to create and distribute tools and methods that will make the multiplication of DRE initiatives easier, and which will stimulate the development of new entrepreneurial approaches from DRE applications. The biggest challenge of this study is to compare and contrast the factors that were essential to the success of these social enterprises in developing sustainable market-based solutions to the social and economic problems faced by rural people in remote areas.

2011: South East Asia

Let me introduce you to the three companies I have worked for in 2011. They represent 3 different approaches dedicated to the same purpose.

Created in 1996 by Muhammad Yunus as one of the « Grameen Sisters » – social companies that satellite around the initial micro-credit institution, the well-known Grameen Bank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grameen_Bank) – Grameen Shakti (GS) was established as a « Social Business » with the aim of promoting the use of affordable, clean, modern, and sustainable energy technologies by the people of rural Bangladesh.

Individual solar home systems (SHS), biogas plants and improved cook stoves are their three main products proposed to their customers.

Grameen Shatki’ business model is based on micro-credit: the beneficiaries have different payment options from a 100% down payment to a 3 years payback period. This loan is provided by a Bangladeshi financial institution supported by the World Bank (IDCOL, Infrastructure Development Company Limited), but it is GS that collects monthly payments made by the end beneficiaries and is accountable for paying back IDCOL. In addition to making the larger loan, IDCOL subsidizes a small % of each system.

In order to be as close to its customers as possible, GS operations are divided over more than 1,200[1] offices, from the Head Quarter located in Dhaka to Divisional, Regional and Branch offices in all regions of Bangladesh. With more than 10,000 employees and 20,000 SHS installed per month, GS became financially sustainable within 4 years of its operations. The rapid expansion of its programs as well as their choice to localize services at the community level helped them drive costs down.

Sunlabob (http://www.sunlabob.com/) is a Lao commercial company. It was set up in 2000 by its current CEO, Andy Schroeter, and has been licensed for power operations since 2001. It offers renewable energy products and provides commercially viable energy services to remote areas, focusing on places that the national electricity grid will not reach for many years.

Sunlabob Renewable Energy Co Ltd. is well known for its expertise in solar lanterns projects, its core business since the creation of the company. However, with today more than 70 employees, the company provides a much wider range of services in urban and off-grid rural areas. On-grid solar installations, water-pumping and water treatment systems, solar lanterns and individual solar home systems, and micro hydro power plants are part of their current product portfolio. Since 2008, when Sunlabob launched an Energy Efficiency department, the company has been not only focusing on rural areas, but also working with urban ones, conducting energy audits, energy efficiency consultancies for buildings and factories, and supplying and installing energy-efficient materials.

Sunlabob projects in off-grid areas are divided in three categories: solar lantern stations financed by international development aid institutions (http://www.sunlabob.com/solar-rechargeable-lamps.html), rural electrification tenders (mainly to implement thousands of solar home systems in developing countries), and individuals or organizations (conducting development projects in rural Laos) that need Sunlabob’s renewable energy services. Sunlabob’s expertise in international tenders is more and more recognized thanks to a strong engineering department and a permanent tender team of several employees.

Sunlabob’s business model is different from Grameen Shakti’s in the sense that they don’t solely rely on their own rural electrification model, the solar lanterns, but propose many renewable energy services adapted to a wide range of clients. After many years of experience with solar lanterns, they decided to focus on quality, sustainability, and maintenance of the systems, and not charge the end-users. Indeed the hardware, training and installation are 100% financed by international organizations (NGOs, foundations, governmental institutions…) but Sunlabob has developed an innovative solution to ensure the capability of the beneficiaries to maintain the equipments properly during the overall life of their system by themselves.

This solution is a simple business model, based on a fee-for-service concept. Kerosene lamps are replaced with high-quality solar lanterns and a very simple charging system that doesn’t require any prior knowledge in electrical engineering. The Sunlabob business model provides opportunities for micro-enterprise formation in the villages and clean energy distribution.

Paris Manila Technology Corporation (PAMATEC, http://www.pamatec.com.ph/) is a French-Filipino corporation founded in 1988 by Hubert d’Aboville. PAMATEC, historical distributor and installer of electrical equipments, is today specialized in the fields of Power Distribution, DC Power Systems & UPS, New Renewable Energy, Weighing Scales and is involved in different special projects, such as Rural Electrification, Traffic Management Systems and Diesel Powered Mini Grids.

From 2004 to the end of 2009, PAMATEC implemented its first large-scale rural electrification project, the Philippine Rural Electrification Service (PRES) project. PRES is considered as the largest countryside power project in the Philippines. Thanks to a partnership between the governments of Philippines and France, the project brings electricity to 18,000 households in the province of Masbate, one of the Philippines’s poorest. PRES was implemented by PAMATEC with a French corporate partner, ETDE (Groupe Bouygues). The 17.5 Million € needed by the electrification component of the program was financed by the Filipino-French protocol. Aside from this, PRES offered basic services such as lighting for “barangay” halls and school buildings, provision of vaccine refrigeration and lighting for rural health units as well as provision of streetlights to major thoroughfares. Electricity was provided via the installation of mini-grids powered by diesel and photovoltaic (PV) systems (respectively 12,800 and 5,200 connections).  The maintenance costs are supposed to be covered by monthly payments from the customers.

While rural electrification is GS and Sunlabob’s core business, it is not PAMATEC’s. They got the opportunity to jump into it by being the link between French and Pilipino governments for this huge project. Since then they decided to incorporate it to their main activities and have participated to several tenders inside the Philippines.

What I learned from these companies  and what I wish to learn from EGG-Energy

Each experience was unique and each model I discovered has its own strengths and weaknesses. In Bangladesh, I saw a company as no others in rural electrification: more than 3.5 million beneficiaries in early 2011, a micro-credit system well managed thanks to the Grameen Bank influence in the country, and a geographic organisation of the offices optimizing sales, marketing and technical supports to be as close as possible to the customers. The company has created a business model that matches perfectly the characteristics of the country it serves: a small and flat land with one of highest inhabitants density in the world.

Having worked for nearly 7 months as Sunlabob’s Solar Lanterns project manager, I was able to see what factors govern the dynamics of these social companies created by foreigners. As many people come for missions between 6 months and 2 years, it is difficult to build a good and durable team spirit. Andy Schroeter succeeds in that sense by creating a strongly motivated local staff in all departments of the company. Working regularly with the technical team I could see how enthusiastic and proud they were to work for a social company like Sunlabob. With all the skills they learned on renewable energies throughout the years and their motivation to participate to the company’s expansion, the success of professional installations is guaranteed.

An other key factor Sunlabob understands after many years working on rural electrification projects, is to provide the simplest technology possible in association with the most reliable and high quality products: changing their home made lantern to the Phocos Pico Lantern is a good illustration of this strategy. Note that the recent arrival of Northern big companies such as Schneider Electric or Phocos in this market enables the creation of high quality products at an affordable price. This is one of my biggest observations last year, as I also observed it in Grameen Shakti buying large quantities of Schneider Electric LED lights.

Why EGG?

When I discovered EGG-energy 18 months ago, I was really enthused and wished to incorporate it to my EnR’Sud project for many reasons. The two major ones were the following:

First, their business model is based on a service that people from the BoP can afford to pay themselves. With 80% of the population living within five kilometers of a transmission line and less than 15% having access to electricity, EGG-energy’s model is completely in line with the Tanzanian context.

Second, after having worked for companies with more than 10 years of experience, I loved the opportunity to join a dynamic start-up 100% focused on rural electrification. I hope this helps me better understand the challenges faced to succeed in this domain!

I will be reporting from time to time on the EGG initiatives that I will be involved with – It’s already been a busy month, and I look forward to the coming ones!

Till then,

Hugo.

Samson - Membership Manager

Samson joined EGG in March 2011, and is an asset to the company. Based in our Dar office, he manages the database and helps with many other administrative, accounting, and organizational tasks.  Samson is currently attending school part time to pursue a degree in business, and has previous work experience in accounting.

Abbas - Chanika Site Manager

Abbas has worked for EGG-energy since 2010.  He was recently promoted to the site manger position, where he has shown great energy and initiative.  His previous jobs include revenue collection for the city of Dar es Salaam’s environmental services, and merchandising for Coca Cola.

Jonathan - Chanika Station Manager

Jonathan has been working with EGG-energy since early 2010.  Before joining the team, he served in the Tanzanian Navy.  Jonathan is responsible for managing the battery-swapping at Chanika, and keeps the charging station well organized.  In this picture, he is measuring the voltage of a battery.

Issa - Technician

Issa jointed EGG in August, 2011.  He finished secondary school Form 4 in 2010, and has learned technical skills through on-the-job training with EGG.

Mohamed - Technician

Mudi has been an EGG technician since 2010.  Always an outstanding employee and electrician, he has recently been instrumental in helping to set up the new EGG-energy franchise in Iringa.

Mohamed - Technician

Mudi is Jonathan’s eldest son, and has been with EGG since August 2011.

Fortunatus - Mbgala Site Manager

Fortunatus joined EGG in 2010.  His past work experience includes sales, accounting, and warehousing.  He completed an advanced diploma in Accountancy in May of 2010.

Omari - Technician

Omari began work as an EGG-energy technician in November of 2011.  Omari holds a certificate in Electrical Installation from the Vocational Education and Training Authority of Dar es Salaam, and has five years prior work experience as an electrician.

Nabira - Administrative Assistant

Nabira joined EGG in November 2011 to help manage the Mbgala station.  She has completed a Certificate in Law, and is taking evening classes in Dar es Salaam towards a Diploma in Law.

Kiiya - Sales Team Manager

Kiiya joined EGG-energy in August 2011 to lead a team of free-lance salespeople.  He previously worked in sales for a mobile phone service provider.  Kiiya has been successful in helping us reach out to new customers over the past few months, and we hope his team continues their hard work into 2012.

Japhet, Tino & Swebe - Sales Team

These three young men work closely with Kiiya to bring new customers to EGG, and to assess new areas for expansion of our services.  They have been working for EGG-energy since September.

EGG Holiday Party

This photo includes the employees mentioned above, plus Solomon (hiding in back), Jamie and myself (Anne).  In the front row are Reuben and Anya, two MIT Sloan students who are here for two weeks to help EGG with our human resources strategy.

EGG at Cocoa Beach

On behalf of the EGG-energy team in Tanzania, best wishes for a happy, healthy, and successful 2012!