STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The Government of Tanzania is main a marketing campaign to extend entry to electrical energy throughout the nation, with assist from the World Bank via the Tanzania Rural Electrification Expansion Program (TREEP).
- A girl engineer took benefit of TREEP to construct a profitable enterprise offering fishing communities round Lake Victoria with low-cost, environmentally pleasant instruments to enhance sardine harvest and processing.
- Her revolutionary options have allowed native fishermen to chop prices by 40% and improved the working circumstances of the ladies answerable for drying the sardines.
MWANZA, March 6, 2025 – Engineer Diana Mbogo, the Managing Director of Millennium Engineering Enterprises Limited in Tanzania, mixed her ardour for expertise with a burning want to problem the established order and make a distinction.
When I graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam in 2016, I used to be deliberate about discovering an business the place I may have an effect with my technical abilities. The fishing business, although male-dominated, caught my consideration due to the hardships confronted by the ladies. I used to be particularly intrigued by the sardine sector the place I instantly noticed the necessity for easy improvements tailor-made to ladies’s particular needs–especially since a lot of them have restricted schooling.
Diana Mbogo Managing Director of Millennium Engineering Enterprises Limited in Tanzania
Through their analysis on the sardine sector in Mwanza, a fishing group on the banks of Lake Victoria, Diana and her crew had recognized a significant drawback: unsanitary open-air drying strategies that took an excessive amount of time, yielded little to no revenue, and failed to fulfill worldwide market requirements. In 2017, the crew started exploring methods to enhance the sector, notably in Kayenze, in Ilemela District, which is famend for its considerable and various fish shares, particularly sardines.
Ndogo ward, the place Kayenze is positioned, is a busy fishing hub, however conventional methods–such as fishing with kerosene lamps and drying sardines on the naked ground–compromised hygiene, effectivity, and the standard of the product.
“Women, who are the main group engaged in the sardine business, faced significant challenges,” Diana mentioned. “They depended entirely on the sun, drying sardines on the ground or netted tables. This made them vulnerable to losses, especially during rainy weather when sunlight was scarce. The fishermen also relied on kerosene lamps for lighting during fishing at night and the cost of fuel for these lamps was high. It also posed safety risks for them.”
To handle these challenges, Millennium Engineers developed fashionable instruments: solar-powered lamps and greenhouse drying services. In this answer, the sardines are rigorously organized on drying racks contained in the managed surroundings. The solar-powered construction, made from a clear arched roof, permits daylight to penetrate whereas defending the fish from contaminants and opposed climate circumstances. Large followers put in inside guarantee correct air circulation, aiding the drying course of. This technique enhances hygiene, reduces post-harvest losses, and improves the standard of dried sardines, making them extra marketable and sustainable in comparison with conventional open-air drying.
“We reduced drying times from 12 hours to five,” Diana shared. “In addition, our facilities have the capacity to dry over 1.2 tons of sardines in a single day. As a result, the women in this community have more time to invest in other economic activities, earn higher incomes, and fetch premium prices for their produce as it is more hygienic.”
The revolutionary solar-powered fishing lamp (manufactured in China) helps fishermen throughout evening fishing and is rented to them by Diana’s firm. It is mounted on a light-weight wire stand, encompasses a shiny yellow casing with a built-in deal with for simple transportation, and operates utilizing photo voltaic vitality. Makeshift floating platforms constructed from recycled plastic bottles and PVC pipes assist hold it positioned on the water’s floor. These lamps appeal to fish by mimicking pure gentle and are an eco-friendly and cost-effective various to the costlier and environmentally dangerous kerosene lamps.
“Our lamps were developed through a sustainability lens, and they not only enhance fishing efficiency but also contribute to reducing carbon emissions and protecting aquatic ecosystems,” mentioned Diana.
Diana’s mission, initiated in 2021 with minimal private funding, gained momentum in 2022 when the Rural Energy Agency (REA) stepped in with a subsidy beneath the World Bank supported Tanzania Rural Electrification Expansion Project (TREEP). TREEP is an initiative financed by the International Development Association (IDA) and goals to develop entry to dependable and inexpensive electrical energy companies throughout Tanzania, enhance the share of renewable vitality sources within the nation’s vitality combine, and improve vitality safety and resilience whereas bettering the monetary sustainability of the vitality sector. Receiving a grant helped Diana develop the drying services and the distribution of lamps, permitting her to answer the excessive demand inside the group and make sure that the companies she provided remained inexpensive.
“Our solar lamps are 40% cheaper than other products on the market and this means that the services are easily affordable for the ordinary customer,” Diana mentioned. “The drying facilities are also competitively priced due to our emphasis on supporting the community to transition to sustainable practices without financial strain.”
The influence of those improvements extends past financial advantages. As an environmental bonus, as an illustration, the shift to solar-powered lamps has diminished using kerosene and acid batteries. “We have removed over 6,000 acid batteries from the lake, which has helped reduce the pollution,” Diana explains. The new technique has additionally reduce the everyday fisherman’s annual expenditures by 40%, because the fishermen lease photo voltaic lamps for Tsh 1,500 per evening, whereas working kerosene lamps beforehand required two liters per night–with present kerosene costs starting from Tsh 2,943 to three,016 per liter.
Diana remembers the challenges of introducing new applied sciences to a deeply conventional business. “We had to understand the cultural norms and engage closely with the community. “The ladies, who deal with the processing of sardines, have been experiencing as much as 70% post-harvest losses in the course of the wet seasons. We consulted with them to have the ability to design an answer that they might simply perceive and recognize.”
The greenhouse drying system has been transformative, benefiting over 3,000 folks via improved livelihoods and market entry. Thanks to Diana Mbogo’s innovations, fishermen in Kayenze now produce high-quality dried sardines that meet international standards and deliver better profits and opportunities. Millennium Engineering has created employment alternatives by immediately hiring 30 folks and goals to scale up its operations to profit 25,000 folks in fishing communities round Lake Victoria.
Diana says, “Our goal is to expand our reach across the entire fishing value chain to unlock the lake’s enormous, untapped potential. We want to bridge the gap between the islands and the mainland, increase productivity, and help these communities access global markets.”
She added, “I wanted to disrupt the status quo and bring innovation to an industry that needed it most. Seeing the positive impact, especially on the women in this community, has been incredibly rewarding.”
It is price noting that her success via TREEP just isn’t remoted: to date, TREEP has connected nearly 8 million people, 1,600 healthcare facilities, 6,500 educational institutions, and 16,000 businesses across Tanzania to the power grid. These outcomes led to the launch of ASCENT TZ, a $300 million program, additionally financed by IDA, whose goal is to speed up entry to sustainable and clear vitality options throughout the nation.