Prosonergy, an international distributor of solar products, is targeting the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) with quality products and services at affordable prices and empowering the distributors across Africa and Asia.
Since the IFC launched its Lighting Africa program in 2008, sales of high-quality off-grid lighting devices have increased significantly and a large number of companies continue to serve the market with new and innovative products. Despite the substantial development of this market, only 3 per cent of the African, Indian and South-East Asian demand is being met.
Distributors in Africa have several challenges to make these high-quality products available at low costs to their countries.
The German based company Prosonergy is aiming for a distributor-focused solution, that provides all advantages but at a considerably lower cost.
“We have teamed up with IFC’s Lighting Africa program to provide certified products,” explains Güngör Kara, CEO of Prosonergy. “We now have an optimized product portfolio for distribution partners, which includes volume bundling and consolidation, after-sales services (www.bopasa.org), minimised logistics costs and we have also established an easy-to-use online webshop to achieve maximum impact in the off-grid energy sector.”
“For customers with very low-incomes, we have the Solar Portable Lights (SPL), for customers with low-incomes we have Solar Home Systems with USB output (SHS-usb), and for customers with a medium level income we have Solar Home Systems with 12V energy output (SHS-12V). All products can be reviewed, compared and selected from our product portfolio and at our webshop: http://shop.prosonergy.com.”
“We put the customer first”, explains Güngör Kara. “From our experience we know that whenever a larger product portfolio is available, the end-user is most interested in purchasing the products that fit best to their need and income level. Therefore we aim to empower the distributor, so as to allow the end-user to decide which products are best suited to their needs, instead of pushing single products through the local sales channels, like many other producers.”
Prosonergy are planning to expand their distribution networks across Africa and Asia and in doing so, they are looking to team up with new distribution channels, such like:
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Small-Medium-Enterprises with existing sales channels;
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Solar Distributors;
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Retailers (national wholesalers) and Pharmacy Chains;
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Telecommunication Providers (including franchisee shops);
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Micro-Finance-Institutions;
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Non-profit Organizations;
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Others.
If you would like to know more and discuss a possible cooperation in more details please contact g.kara(@)prosonergy.com.
GVEP is supporting Prosonergy to launch its operations, and over the next 12 months Prosonergy expects to sell over 14,000 Lighting Africa certified solar-powered products improving the living standards of approximately 70,000 people.
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