CASE STUDY
finance are being piloted, including a ‘rent-to-buy’ scheme, and a ‘layaway’ scheme. In the latter, customers gradually build up savings through the mobile-phone based money-transfer system, and when they have saved enough receive a code to collect the equipment from any retailer.
Environmental benefits The main environmental benefit of ToughStuff lamps is cutting greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the use of kerosene for lighting. Assuming that each ToughStuff lamp replaces one kerosene lamp, it saves about 24 litres of kerosene per year. As a result, lamps in use at the end of March 2011 are avoiding the emission of about 8,800 tonnes/year of CO2. Dry cells used in radios and other equipment are frequently disposed of in landfill and pollute groundwater. ToughStuff surveys in Kenya and Madagascar suggest that using a set of radio connectors can avoid the use and improper disposal of up to 96 D-cells in a year.
Social benefits By avoiding the use of kerosene for lighting, ToughStuff lamps reduce the risk of house fires, and cut air pollution with its associated health impacts. They also reduce the incidence of kerosene poisoning, which is notably high among women and children.
The quality and versatility of the LED lamp brings other social benefits. The lamp can be used as a room light or task light for up to five hours per evening, giving children who live in off-grid households the chance to keep up with their school work. Using the ToughStuff lamp as a torch outdoors or low-intensity light indoors increases safety and security. In Haiti, 74% of ToughStuff users said that they felt safer at night.
Mobile phones and similar devices have changed urban life, but their really transformational impact is off-grid. In Kenya and an increasing number of other countries they provide not just communications, but also access to mobile banking and other vital services such as healthcare. For an off-grid user who has to travel to a battery charging shop and pay for phone charging, a ToughStuff PV panel and phone connector saves
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valuable time and money. Young people and families keep in touch. Elderly people who might otherwise switch off their phone to save the battery can keep it charged. Enabling people to listen to radios for free is another valuable way to help rural people keep in contact with the world.
Economic and employment benefits Kerosene and phone charging use a significant proportion of household income, particularly in rural areas and in off-grid areas round towns and cities where cash incomes are usually low. In rural Kenya the wage for a labourer is about KSh 100 (US$1.2) per day, so the savings from using ToughStuff products – typically KSh 120 per week on kerosene and KSh 60 on phone charging - are very important. Further savings can be made if radio connectors are used to replace D-cells.
ToughStuff has directly provided employment to 50 full time staff and 53 local sales agents. It has also helped about 250 rural entrepreneurs to start businesses, selling products, renting lights, or charging phones. Entrepreneurs earn around 25% of the retail price of products.
Improved light provides extended hours for home-based work, and the opportunity to increase income. Informal provision of phone-charging also increases income and keeps money in the rural economy
Future plans – Through expanding its geographical range and ongoing product development, ToughStuff aims to reach 33 million poor consumers, mainly in Africa, by 2015.
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