Rural Electrification Opportunity
The market for Ansar services in Bangladesh is about 40 million people living in about 30,000 villages. This is a multi-billion dollar market.
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Quality of life impact: Quality of life in Bangladesh is stressed by a severely constrained electricity supply; the relatively low electricity generation in Bangladesh results in severe load shedding in places that are connected to the grid. As the government has not been able to meet the rising demands, numerous villages have been left unconnected. It is estimated that 30,000 of the 80,000 villages in Bangladesh have no electricity, affecting some 40 million people.
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Access to electricity in village life immediately creates significant lifestyle improvements for rural inhabitants. Ansar’s pricing tariff has been designed to be cost-competitive with kerosene burning, which is currently the primary source of lighting. However, electric lighting benefits from a much greater light distribution, and does not create the same levels of household air pollution as kerosene lamps. In addition, electricity enables a vast array of entrepreneurial activities, including cell phone charging, electric sewing machines, ice and ice cream machines, sales of appliances, and irrigation, among others.
Village environment: Ansar only targets locations which are currently not connected to the existing electric grid.
Target villages: Ansar is focused on extreme rural villages that are usually agricultural-based and have basic living conditions
Before Ansar: Evening activities are limited and can only happen using kerosene lanterns, which are expensive and unhealthy
After Ansar: Electricity provides the opportunity to do more things in the evening, including studying and watching TV
