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Mapping of private health centers for electrifications

Access to electricity according to the Free-For-Service Approach

The Grüne Bürgerenergie project (GBE, Green Energy for Citizens, in French) supports the development of decentralized renewable energy in rural areas of Africa, involving local actors and private investors. Particular attention is given to the participation of municipalities, cooperatives and local enterprises.  It also promotes local value creation and the productive and social use of energy, as well as employment opportunities. This initiative is being implemented by the GIZ in nine African countries, including Benin.

In order to truly increase the solar energy sector, the GBE Benin is involved in six (06) priority areas including the Electrification of Social Infrastructures (IS). In this sense, the GBE accompanies the socio-community infrastructures (health centers, town halls, schools, police stations, etc.) in the access to electricity according to the commercial and sustainable Fee-For-Service approach.

Contrary to the conventional approach to selling equipment (which has shown its limitations), the Fee-For-Service approach is a sale of services to the beneficiaries according to a long-term contract and pre-defined performance criteria. It is therefore not the sale, but the rental of solar systems and the operation and maintenance of these systems by private companies. Payment for the service is linked to the satisfaction of these performance criteria. In the Fee-For-Service approach, the SI only receives and pays monthly flat rates and in return, the private company is responsible for the financing, installation and maintenance of the solar system. Therefore, the model is based on the mutual relationship between supply (solar company) and demand (social infrastructure – the customer). If the solar company does not provide quality services, it is not paid; and if the social infrastructure does not pay, it cannot benefit from the solar system. In addition, the model relies on the latest technologies in remote control with optimized maintenance, as well as prepaid payments to unlock the system. The strength of such a model is that it integrates the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) aspects that will be provided by the company.

As part of the implementation of the activities, GBE Benin would like to map the private health centers not electrified and interested in the present project in order to facilitate their electrification. By private health centers, we mean those run by NGOs, religious organizations, etc.

Therefore, any center interested in this call is requested to contact us latest on 31st August 2020 at: GBE.Benin@giz.de and nicolette.padonou@giz.de in copy and subject “Cartography Private Centers NAME-OF-CENTRE” specifying the following information:

  • Name of the center
  • Address of the center (Department – Commune – Borough – Village)
  • Services provided by the center
  • Name and contact number of a reference person