The trio of Azuri technologies, Lotus Africa, and Tigo announced at the mobile world congress (MWC) a partnership that would provide integrated pay-as-you-go energy and mobile payment services to rural households in Tanzania.
The partnership hopes to bring mobile money services, solar power and mobile phone charging services to more than 100,000 off-grid rural consumers in the next two years. The service will be based on Tigo’s distribution networks and mobile money system –known as Tigo Pesa.
“We are delighted to be working with both Tigo and Lotus Africa,” Simon Bransfield-Garth, CEO of Azuri, said. “This partnership joins together expertise in home solar and mobile network services with an established and reliable route to rural households.”
According to the press release, the Tigo Pesa mobile payment service provides a secure way for consumers to pay for their top-ups. The approach hopes to unlock the potential for low income, off-grid households to stay connected and take full advantage of daily energy access. It says further that Lotus Africa will distribute and service the solar home systems, giving customers a wide network of support.
Tigo, the first cellular network in Tanzania that started operations in 1994, is part of Millicom International Cellular S.A (MIC). They provide accessible and available prepaid cellular telephony services to millions of customers in 13 emerging markets in Africa and Latin America.
