Arusha, Tanzania – SunCulture, a Kenya-based company specializing in solar pumping, irrigation and technology solutions wins EEP Africa 2019 Project of the Year from a group of five finalists.
The EEP Africa Project of the Year Award recognizes outstanding achievement by an EEP Africa portfolio company during the past year.
Five finalists were invited to the EEP Africa Knowledge Exchange Forum in Arusha, Tanzania on 4 December for a live pitching session in front of an audience of close to 100 renewable energy stakeholders and a jury panel composed of EEP Africa funding partners as well as investor and policy partners.
SunCulture is based in Nairobi, Kenya and received EEP Africa financing support in 2015 to develop a commercially viable solar irrigation business model.
“SunCulture was extremely fortunate to benefit from an EEP Africa grant at an early stage in our development, which enabled us to pioneer off-grid solar-powered irrigation systems designed specifically for smallholder farmers,” said Samir Ibrahim, SunCulture CEO and Co-founder, adding, “2019 was a breakthrough year for us, and it’s an honour to be recognized as EEP Africa’s Project of the Year. We’re excited to bring life-changing technology to more and more smallholder farmers in 2020.”
The SunCulture solar irrigation product enables smallholder farmers and women-led rural households to transform their livelihoods, enhance climate resilience and dramatically increase household income by enabling reliable access to water for small scale agriculture.
Lucy Jong’a, SunCulture’s Head of Finance led the pitch for the company in Arusha, describing key 2019 achievements including:
- Delivering access to reliable water and renewable energy to over 20,000 people;
- Launching new products and technologies including the RainMaker2, ClimateSmart Direct, and Direct Drip;
- Expanding operations outside of Kenya with pilots in Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Senegal and Togo;
- Winning two Global LEAP Awards for best-in-class off-grid technology; and
- Securing an inventory financing facility from the Facility for Energy Inclusion’s Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (FEI-OGEF), which is, in turn, financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as well as the Nordic Development Fund, EEP Africa’s institutional home.
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