Solarfirst Uganda Ltd. and Sunny Money Uganda are the two new members of the Association of Sendea UG. The Association, which is unique in Africa, aims to strengthen local solar companies so that they can compete more easily with the large international solar companies.

Sendea’s work includes the exchange of experience among CEOs, the provision of solar training courses and installation work for international organizations. Just recently, Sendea members have equipped 35 health stations with solar energy on behalf of the Signify Foundation and Stiftung Solarenergie.

For Loy Kyozaire, CEO of Sendea, it is also important for the member companies to act as a consortium and thus act as a community vis-à-vis manufacturers or when bidding for tenders: “The advantage of Sendea for the international partners is that our members are spread across the whole of Uganda and we can therefore also offer maintenance and service nationwide. This is a great advantage of our work as a community,” Loy is sure.

This is also emphasized by Harriet Nongoola, CEO of Sunny Money Uganda: “We are happy that we now are member of Sendea, because Sendea brings together local SMEs in the energy sector. This enables us to build a sustainable social enterprise through networks, trainings / capacity building, funding opportunities and all other resources and services that would be available.”

Sunny Money was part of the international organization Solar Aid / Sunny Money. Today Sunny Money is a locally owned female – led social enterprise dealing in last mile distribution of solar lights.

Second new Sendea member is SolarFirst Uganda, an integrated renewable energy technology company selling, financing and installing Solar Home Systems and a host of other renewable energy technologies in Uganda. The CEO, Tumusiime Izdolo, explains his motivation to become a member of Sendea as follows: “creating synergies with a strong network of partners to solve last-mile challenges of the client is the reason we join the Sendea network today. We are optimistic that by joining this network we will leverage on these synergies and linkages to serve our clients better.”

Sendea is still open for new members: Among the conditions for membership are that the company is majority-owned by Ugandan citizens and that the focus of its business activities is in the field of photovoltaics. Those who are interested should contact the CEO, Loy Kyozaire: lkyozaire@sendea.org

Source: Sendea