Tanzania’s Juabar, solar bar in English, is a solar-powered kiosk which can charge over 10 or 20 phones and small electronic devices at once aims to light up Tanzania and provide jobs to as many as possible via its solar kiosks.
According to the firm, “Our mission is to develop profitable small business opportunities in Tanzania while meeting community energy and connectivity needs.”
Juabar solar kiosk are used for phone charging to bring connectivity to users in off-grid areas in Tanzania. Founded in 2012 by Olivia Nava and Sachi Decou, Juabar leases solar-powered kiosks to micro-business owners for recharging mobile phones especially in rural areas that arent connected to grid electicity. The soalr-powered kiosks are set in public as pop-up solar-electrified shop acting as a instant businesses for entrepreneurs.
The team says their longest running Juabar charging kiosks were launched a year ago and the operators charge 20 or more phones each day with others expanding their charging business as a franchise operation with Juabar.
By doing so the social entreprise is solving both poverty by providing business opportunities and employment to the owners and their employees and also conencting them to a reliable power source to charge their phones.
However, Juabar is not alone. Tanzania’s Karibu Solar also uses a solar panel, two LED lamps, and a recharging system which they sell to small shopkeepers who in turn sell them or use them to recharge mobile phones for their customers.
The only diiference is that Juabar is a kiosk out their for mobile phones recharging while Karibu Solar has both a phone recharging feature and and a lighting feature to help users end their dependency of harzadous kerosene lamps. The two firms however, can co-exist as the opportunity is massive in Tanzania and in Africa as a whole.
