By Antara Majumdar
Solar Sister is a social enterprise that trains and supports women to deliver clean energy in rural sub-Saharan African communities. Over the years, it has taken significant steps in empowering women digitally, recognizing digital literacy is crucial when addressing issues of energy poverty and promoting women’s entrepreneurship. Through its partnership with ENERGIA, Solar Sister equips women entrepreneurs with smartphones and digital skills. This is essential to expand their clean energy businesses while more effectively reaching communities that lack energy access.
According to OECD statistics, the African continent has the largest number of female entrepreneurs in the world, with more than a quarter of all enterprises in Africa founded or run by women. By comparison, in Europe, women’s entrepreneurial activity is only 5.7%, according to European Investment Bank data. Despite their high levels of activity, African women entrepreneurs face multiple challenges that affect their growth and performance, including limited business management knowledge, access to finance and digital literacy.
Recognizing these challenges, Solar Sister’s work with over 9,000 women entrepreneurs to sell durable and affordable solar-powered products and clean stoves, includes a strong component of digital literacy training and use of digital platforms to enhance their impact. The entrepreneurs receive education the use of smartphones and digital platforms to manage their business. This training covers essential skills such as inventory management, sales tracking, digital marketing, and use of social media for product promotion. By mastering these tools, the Solar Sister entrepreneurs can reach a broader audience, streamline their operations and gain more control over their businesses.
Enabling access to smartphones
Key to the use of any digital platform is, of course, the hardware. Since many of the women entrepreneurs don’t have a smartphone, Solar Sister makes these available to them. The entrepreneurs buy their phone from Solar Sister, often at a subsidized rate and pay for the devices through an affordable payment plan. Solar Sister then provides basic smartphone use training, so the women know how to manage the phones and use them to their fullest potential.
Providing the entrepreneurs with smartphones ensures access to essential digital financial services and communication tools. The smartphones help women to stay connected with suppliers and customers, while utilizing mobile applications for enhancing their business efficiency. Moreover, these devices serve as a gateway to a wide range of educational resources, providing more learning opportunities through digital content. So far, 522 Solar Sister Entrepreneurs have been trained in comprehensive digital literacy skills.
The gains of digitization
Being able to use mobile banking platforms, allows the women to conduct secure transactions and better manage their finances. This not only improves financial literacy but also improves the financial independence and helps reduce the dependency on cash transactions. Solar Sister offers training on how to use these mobile banking platforms. It also encourages the entrepreneurs to use data-driven business management practices. Entrepreneurs are equipped with tools to collect and analyze business data, helping them make informed decisions, identify trends, and optimize their business strategies. This data-focused approach has resulted in more productivity and profitability for many women. By learning how to assess sales performance and customer feedback through data, women can refine their sales techniques and product offerings more effectively.
In addition to these efforts, Solar Sister uses its digital channels for supporting mentorship and peer-to-peer learning. Women entrepreneurs participate in virtual forums where they share experiences, challenges, and best practices, thereby creating a digital community. These platforms allow entrepreneurs to stay connected and seek guidance together, further strengthening the support network.
Driving Change: The impact of Solar Sister’s digital empowerment for women
The impact of Solar Sister’s digital empowerment initiatives has been profound. Women who have participated in the program report increased business growth, improved confidence in managing digital tools, and greater community recognition as clean energy leaders. Many women have expanded their customer base beyond their immediate communities by leveraging digital platforms, contributing to enhanced economic resilience and sustainability. According to the Digitizing Women Entrepreneurs: Solar Sister Learnings Report 2024, Solar Sister entrepreneurs who own smartphones earn 80% more on average.
Solar Sister provided digital skills training to over 500 women in 2024 and intends to further expand its digital literacy program in 2025 and beyond, supporting even more women entrepreneurs in utilizing technology to build sustainable businesses.
