SCF Nigeria represents the first full-scale demonstration of SCC’s Sustainable Communities Framework (SCF) program, which includes both non-profit (NGO) programs and for-profit businesses. 

With nearly 230 million residents, Nigeria is the 6th most populated country in the world. However, as a nation, it unfortunately has the highest percentage of its population living in extreme poverty (U.N. defines that as equivalent <$1.90/day), millions of which live in the more than 10,000 villages throughout the country.

Nigeria is divided into 36 states and SCC is launching the SCF program in a pilot location called Enugu East LGA (population approx. 300,000) in Enugu State, one of the smallest states in the country. Nonetheless, Enugu State has nearly 6 million people, more than half of which live in 580+ villages. Once the pilot program proves successful, we will expand into the other 16 LGA locations in Enugu State. Once demonstrated there, we anticipate that the other 35 states throughout Nigeria will want to rapidly follow, a trend that has already started.

The home page of SCF Nigeria conceptually describes the kind of problems that can be addressed by the SCF program, in support of a wide variety of regional economic, environmental and social development goals. In particular, this page What Can Be Done With the SCF? lists specific programs that will be tackled in Nigeria, which we plan to do in a serial rollout fashion. The majority of those programs rely on our issuing our own money (called a “complementary currency“) as we describe on our homepage.

The First SCF Nigeria Non-Profit Programs

We have launched our pilot SCF program in the kingdom of Ososo, in Edo State, in partnership with the King of Ososo.  Ososo represents the first full spectrum implementation of the SCF concept, beginning with a basic food grant program (see below) for every adult and child in Ososo.

To administer a variety of non-profit programs in the rest of Nigeria, SCC has formed a Nigerian NGO called Michael Sauvante Care Foundation (MSCF). MSCF will be responsible for launching all manner of non-profit programs in Nigeria, as introduced on that What Can Be Done With the SCF? page. To implement the SCF Program in each state, we will engage a local NGO to serve as our State Partner, responsible for implementing the SCF Program in their state and deciding on the programs they wish to prioritize locally. Besides the program in Ososo, our first state partner is Enugu based African Centre for Rural Development & Environment (ACERDEN). Here are the first programs we will be launching in partnership with ACERDEN:

• Poverty Elimination using a Basic Food Grant (BFG) program (similiar to a Universal Basic Income (UBI) grant), to eliminate extreme poverty and universally solve the problem of hunger throughout a region. Every resident of Enugu (~6 million), rich or poor, is eligible for the UBI grant, as will the rest of the residents throughout the country to follow, and
• A comprehensive Infrastructure grant program capable of funding all manner of government infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, sanitation, energy and water systems, transportation systems and a whole lot more. We will start with all the local governments in the state of Enugu, including 17 local government areas (LGAs – similar to counties in the US), over 50 cities and towns, and 580+ villages, followed by the other 35 states, with thousands of cities and towns and over 10,000 villages.
• As the SCF Program is launched in each state, we will selected a State Partner and they will determine which programs they want to launch and in what order. However, we anticipate that the Food Grant Program will likely be the most universal first program.,

NrG Company Nigeria

We recognize that the concept of pursuing economic development based on the issuance of our own money is a new concept to most people. And even if we can overcome the newness of that concept, the non-profit programs that enables are not the complete solution for economic development, in Nigeria and just about everywhere else. Thus, we decided to also establish one or more for profit businesses in Nigeria, provided that they serve our overall goals of sustainability.

We begin those for profit operations in Nigeria by leveraging an economic development program we are already have going in the United States. There we have established a company called the Wisconsin Battery Company (WinBat). We have arranged to build two new battery factories in Wisconsin, at the rate of $20 million each. There we will not only be manufacturing many common batteries, but are in the process of developing two new environmentally friendly battery technologies in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. One of those new technologies is designed for large scale (grid) storage (our “industrial batteries”) some of which are as large as shipping containers. We are bringing those technologies and more to Nigeria.

Nigeria currently does not have any battery factories and thus this represents a significant development for the country, especially as for grid backup for the rapid growth of solar and wind farms, which our new “industrial batteries” can address. SCC has established a new for-profit subsidiary in Nigeria called NrG Company Nigeria Ltd. (pronounced “energy”). In turn, SCC has established a US subsidiary called Nigerial NrG Company LLC to serve as the US holding company (parent company) to NrG Company Nigeria Ltd. (“NrGCo”), allowing for investments to be made in the US under US securities laws, with those funds then being used in Africa. Doing so in the US is much easier than in Nigeria.

NrGCo will have multiple product lines that will be commercialized within separate product “divisions” of the company. The current products lines are batteries, kekes (see below), solar engineering and systems, battery recycling and plastics recycling.

NrGCo. has partnered with Nigerian based Okafor Motors (Facebook) in Nigeria to produce batteries and more. as described in this Guardian article, this Vanguard article, and in this Nation article (and others below¹). Ultimately NrG Co. will produce a wide variety of batteries for local consumption, especially our more environmentally friendly zinc/air batteries and our hemp carbon batteries.

However, the first battery we will produce will be designed to go with a Nigerian homegrown product developed by Okafor Motors – a solar/plugin electric three wheel and four wheel transportation vehicle that much of the world calls a “tuk-tuk” or “auto rickshaw“. In Nigeria, such vehicles go by the label “keke” (pronounced like kay-kay). We will trademark this vehicle line as NiKeKe for Nigerian kekes. We are exploring other electric vehicles to add to the mix, with electric scooters high on the list.

While we are producing batteries for the NiKeKes, we will also develop and market other types of batteries, as circumstances and demand dictate. That is especially the case of our industrial batteries to go along with solar micro-grids and larger solar farms. Common sense says that the sun does not shine 24/7 and most people are not aware that providing a complete micro-grid or full scale solar farm requires not just the solar arrays, but the battery backup systems that are able to store the energy generated during the day, for delivery all other times.

Providing complete micro-grid and larger solar arrays, along with our grid backup batteries, represents an additional product division of NrGCo. We are already developing specifications provide a complete solar systems (likely mini-grid systems) for the city of Ososo located in Akoko-Edo LGA, Edo State. Ososo has a population of approximately 100,000 and Edo State has a population approaching 5 million.

In the meantime, there are two other business divisions that will be established under NrG Company Nigeria Ltd a) all manner of battery recycling and b) various forms of plastics recycling. This website, https://nrgco.net will be dedicated to NrG Company Nigeria Ltd and its product divisions.

¹ ESI Africa https://www.esi-africa.com/news/nigeria-partnership-to-build-tricycles-powered-by-solar-energy-and-green-batteries and Legit NG https://www.legit.ng/business-economy/industry/1579383-nigerian-company-build-solar-powered-tricycles-ready-compete-innoson-others/

How You Can Help

Please note that to date SCC has developed everything with its own resources, but with the impending Nigeria NrG Company launch and the new non-profit organization and its programs, additional resources are needed from outside that can greatly aid in the deployment of these programs throughout Enugu and the rest of Nigeria and beyond. Interested parties can donate to this effort below. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated