Article / Report

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Societal Services

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government Services

Providing electricity and gas services, including traditional and renewable energy generation, natural and manufactured gas and operating gas networks

Energy Utilities and Independent Power Producers

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

Govern the Transition

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policies

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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The Lighting Africa program has done an exceptional job in building the foundation of the off-grid market space and will help propel the African continent to achieve universal access for all. Charles Feinstein, Director of Energy and Extractives Global Practice, The World Bank



The joint IFC-World Bank Lighting Africa program has set itself the ambitious and important target of enabling more than 250 million people across sub-Saharan Africa currently living without electricity to gain access to clean, affordable, quality-verified off-grid lighting and energy products by 2030. Our aim is to achieve this by catalyzing the market through a number of different activities across the supply chain:
 Lighting Africa conducts market research and publishes reports on the findings, demonstrating the extensive opportunities presented by the off-grid market in sub-Saharan Africa and providing critical data to help manufacturers, distributors and retailers to make informed business decisions.
Quality Assurance
A cornerstone of the IFC-World Bank Lighting Africa program is our dedication to quality. The purchase of an off-grid lighting product or Solar Home System can represent a significant investment for a family in sub-Saharan Africa, and consumers simply can’t afford to purchase something that doesn’t work well or won’t last. In order to protect consumers from poor-quality products and prevent the eroding of consumer confidence in off-grid products in the process, we developed a series of Quality Standards and testing methods. As our program has been replicated in other continents, the coordination and testing of these Quality Standards has been moved to our affiliated program, Lighting Global.
Access to Finance
Access to finance all along the supply chain has been identified as a critical need for the functioning and growth of the off-grid lighting and solar home system (SHS) market. From distributors who need working capital to hold adequate product stocks, to consumers needing credit to make a purchase, Lighting Africa facilitates and leverages financial products to help provide the capital that is needed.
Consumer Education
For the off-grid lighting products and solar home system market to grow and thrive, consumers need to be aware of the advantages that these products provide over fuel-based sources. To educate potential end-users on the many benefits of quality off-grid lighting and energy products, Lighting Africa produces consumer education materials and conducts consumer education campaigns in partnership with manufacturers and distributors.
Business Development Support
The off-grid lighting market has been typified by remarkable innovation and novelty, and largely driven by social entrepreneurs. Lighting Africa provides advice to players in this sector on best business practices, corporate governance and risk management, while supporting innovative business models that expand energy access at the base of the pyramid (BOP).
Lighting Africa also works with governments towards removing policy and regulatory market entry barriers in order to increase access to clean energy, and to foster a vibrant competitive market for off-grid energy products. We also work with governments to integrate modern off-grid energy products into their rural electrification programs.  

 
The Lighting Africa – Nigeria program was launched in March 2015 to increase access to better, cleaner and safer off-grid lighting and energy products for the rural and peri-urban populations with no access to the grid. Our key objectives from the outset of the program were to help six million people gain access to clean, modern, affordable lighting products, while avoiding 120,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

To achieve these goals, we work in collaboration with manufacturers, distributors, retailers, financial institutions, government agencies, consumers, and other stakeholders to develop markets and tackle the barriers to the adoption of cleaner energy sources among the base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) population.
Creating awareness
To create awareness, we have carried out numerous consumer education campaigns in Nigeria using a combination of road shows, market storms, radio advertising and product presentation forums to increase awareness of solar lanterns and solar home systems (SHS). As of December 2018, over 50 million people across 21 states had been exposed to our campaigns.

Meeting demand
With increased awareness comes increased demand – yet impediments to access remain. Lighting Africa is working to address issues including distribution and financing bottlenecks.
BoP consumers typically spend more on the lifecycle cost for traditional lighting sources, such as kerosene lamps (due to recurring fuel expenditures), than what they would spend on average for a solar lantern. Yet they often find it difficult to shoulder the initial upfront costs, which hampers their ability to switch to cleaner energy sources. To address this constraint, we are collaborating with 14 microfinance (MFI) banks in Nigeria, offering basic knowledge training on products meeting our standards to MFI employees.  They in turn introduce the products to their customers, enabling the MFIs to provide micro-loans to their customers to purchase solar lanterns and SHS. Retailers and distributors also face financing challenges and can benefit from these loans. The MFIs have, as of December 2018, given out about 100,000 loans that combined are worth approximately US$3.4 million.
A robust distribution channel that reaches rural consumers was also lacking. Thus, we have set up a retail channel development program to expand the distribution footprint of solar lanterns and SHS by training retailers in different areas of Nigeria. This effort has brought over 6,000 new retailers into the value chain. We also support these private sector actors by creating business-to-business linkages through events connecting manufacturers with distributors, and distributors with retailers.
To ensure that consumers continue to enjoy the benefits of their investment in solar products, the program has trained over 300 technicians to provide after-sales maintenance.
Expanding across the country
Nigeria is a big country with 36 states. Our market development work has reached 21 of these States, using a combination of consumer education activities, retail channel development, and consumer access to finance.


The Lighting Africa Program in Nigeria, in collaboration with other stakeholders, has laid the foundation for what will arguably become Africa’s largest off-grid solar market in a few years. The market has taken off. But most importantly, the real reward of our work is the transformation seen in the lives of low-income consumers. Their businesses can stay open for longer. Their children can study conveniently at night. And some of them are already looking for the next set of solutions up the energy ladder as they appreciate the savings they have realized by switching to solar. It’s amazing. Allwell Nwankwo, Program Manager, Lighting Africa – Nigeria


Looking forward
In order to build on what has already been achieved in off-grid electrification in Nigeria, we will be supporting two ambitious projects; the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP), and the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP).
ROGEP
Nigeria is one of two pilot countries under the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP), and will serve to identify suitable and sustainable mechanisms to electrify public institutions. ROGEP will aim to increase electricity access to households, businesses, and communities through modern off-grid electrification in the 15 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo) as well as Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, and Mauritania.
Lighting Africa will support ROGEP by working with both the national governments and the private sector to make quality-verified off-grid solar lighting and energy products more readily available in West Africa. We will work closely with the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), ROGEP’s implementing agency, to draw new actors to the market, and support existing players in growing their sales.
The Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP)
Through the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) the World Bank is providing a US $350 million loan to the Government of Nigeria, to be used solely  to increase access to off-grid electrification. US$75 million of this comprises an investment fund to encourage market growth to enable faster uptake of SHS (6Wp and above).
The Market Scale Up Challenge Fund will offer up-front grants to existing qualified, large-scale providers to accelerate their sales to households and M/SMEs. Grant recipients will be required to meet quarterly milestones including demonstrating they can leverage the grant for mobilizing other sources of financing (debt and equity) to receive tranche based payouts. This evaluation process will serve to protect against non-performance risk, while simultaneously reducing risk to investors. Together this will help mobilize capital for firms with a proven track record to bring clean, safe, modern energy services to more consumers, quickly.
At the same time, an Output Based Fund will focus on enabling strong new entrants and capable Nigerian start-up firms with an ability to successfully service customers, to get a start in this vibrant market. Grants of up to 15-20% of the cost of an eligible installed SHS will be provided, so that firms can invest in the training, advertising, processes, and logistics needed to run their business. The amount of each grant is fixed for each system size/level of service category, and continually reduced over the 5-year span of the program as the market grows.
NEP is also implementing a quality assurance framework for component based systems. These systems are not currently covered by Lighting Global Quality Standards – but we are working closely with the Quality Assurance team to work on this framework with a goal to harmonize them at the global level in due time.
In order enable faster growth and uptake of SHS we are coordinating with other donors to develop complementary financing from investors, financial institutions, and development organizations.
By working towards narrowing the financing gap we can give an important and sustainable leg-up to the off-grid lighting and energy sector in Nigeria – so that each of the  6 million people we set-out to reach can have access to a clean, safe, and affordable energy source.
Page & Impact last updated March 2019 

Tanzania

Sierra Leone

Kenya

Nigeria

Ghana

Ethiopia

Rwanda

Uganda

Ivory Coast

Burkina Faso

Senegal

Madagascar

Benin

Cameroon

Gambia

Chad

DR Congo

Burundi

Guinea

Cabo Verde

Central African Republic

Guinea-Bissau

Mali

Niger

Liberia

Mauritania

Togo

Somalia

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International Finance Corporation

World Bank

World Bank Group

<p>The Lighting Africa program has set the target of enabling more than 250 million people across sub-Saharan Africa currently living without electricity to gain access to clean, affordable, quality-verified off-grid lighting and energy products by 2030.&nbsp;Furthermore, the Lighting Africa project increases awareness about solar energy across the continent. For instance, in Nigeria, they carried out numerous consumer education campaigns using a combination of roadshows, market storms, radio advertising and product presentation forums to increase awareness of solar lanterns and solar home systems (SHS).</p>