Reaching households with the information they need to make informed energy choices is not a one-time event; it is a sustained commitment. During May and June 2026, SESCOM (Sustainable Energy Services Company Limited) and TaTEDO-Sustainable Energy Services Organization (TaTEDO-SESO) demonstrated exactly that commitment through an intensive series of consumer outreach campaigns, public exhibitions, live cooking demonstrations, and high-level stakeholder engagements across multiple regions of Tanzania, which is key to accelerating the transition to clean cooking.

Working in close partnership with TANESCO (Tanzania Electric Supply Company) and the Rural Energy Agency (REA), the campaign reached hundreds of households, professionals, government officials, and development partners. It offered something that brochures alone cannot deliver: direct, practical experience of efficient electric cooking technologies in action — the sights, sounds, smells, and, crucially, the taste.

 The outreach spanned three major national platforms — a workplace awareness programme, an international clean mobility event, the Tanga Trade Fair, and Tanzania’s National Environment Week — making it one of the most geographically and thematically diverse eCooking consumer engagement efforts undertaken in Tanzania to date.

Bringing Electric Cooking to the Workplace: NMB UDOM Branch, Dodoma

Consumer adoption of modern energy cooking technologies is often held back not by lack of interest, but by lack of information.

Awareness Creation of eCooking at Dodoma (photo credit: TaTEDO-SESO).

To address this gap directly, SESCOM engaged employees of the National Microfinance Bank (NMB) at its UDOM Branch in Dodoma in late May 2026 through a structured workplace awareness session.

Participants received detailed, practical information on a range of SESCOM products. The session went beyond technical specifications, addressing real household concerns such as electricity consumption, cooking speed, ease of use, and running costs compared to charcoal-based alternatives.

The results were immediate. Several participants purchased appliances on the spot, while others placed orders for collection from SESCOM’s Dodoma office. The session illustrated a critical insight for eCooking market development: when consumers are given accurate information and the opportunity to see and handle modern cooking appliances in a trusted, professional environment, purchasing barriers are significantly reduced.

The NMB UDOM outreach is part of a broader SESCOM workplace engagement strategy that targets formal sector employees — a segment with relatively stable income, access to electricity at home, and responsiveness to peer-influenced purchasing decisions.

Showcasing Clean Cooking at the Road to Africa Initiative Event, Dar es Salaam

On 29 May 2026, SESCOM and TaTEDO-SESO participated in the Road to Africa Initiative Event, hosted by Engineers Without Borders Norway at the residence of the Norwegian Ambassador in Dar es Salaam. The event marked the culmination of a pioneering electric vehicle road expedition that had travelled from Kigali, Rwanda, through Tanzania, to Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Awareness Creation Session with participants at the Norwegian Ambassador residence (photo credit: TaTEDO-SESO).

The gathering brought together stakeholders from government, development agencies, and the private sector to discuss the future of sustainable mobility and energy on the African continent. SESCOM used the occasion to exhibit electric three-wheelers alongside a range of eCooking appliances, highlighting the synergies between clean transportation and clean cooking as interconnected pillars of a low-carbon energy transition.

The event reinforced the importance of integrated clean energy messaging: for many Tanzanian families, the shift away from fossil fuels and biomass will not happen in isolation; it will happen across transport, cooking, and power simultaneously. Visibility on international platforms of this kind helps position Tanzania’s eCooking sector within broader regional and global sustainability conversations, creating pathways to new partnerships and investment.

Demonstrations

The Tanga Trade Fair, held at Mwahango Grounds from 28 May to 6 June 2026, provided one of the most sustained consumer engagement platforms of the campaign. Over nine days, SESCOM teams conducted continuous live cooking demonstrations using electric pressure cookers and other eCooking appliances, giving visitors repeated opportunities to observe the technology in action.

The centrepiece of the May–June campaign was SESCOM and TaTEDO-SESO’s participation in Tanzania’s National Environment Week Exhibition, held at Jakaya Kikwete Grounds in Dodoma from 1 to 5 June 2026.

The organisations operated three coordinated exhibition booths in partnership with TANESCO and REA — one each for TANESCO, REA, and TaTEDO-SESO — enabling visitors to experience clean cooking across multiple touchpoints in a single visit. Each booth delivered daily live cooking demonstrations using EPCs and air fryers, with demonstrators narrating the process and displaying electricity consumption data in real time.

A diverse range of meals was prepared across the exhibition period, including:

  • Makande (maize and beans), rice, and pilau
  • Beans, chickpeas, and peas
  • Chips, bananas, and plantains prepared in air fryers
  • Steamed potatoes and mixed vegetable dishes
  • Meat dishes, including pilau ya nyama (meat pilau) and roasted meats

Visitors were invited to taste food prepared using the electric appliances — a powerful demonstration that electric cooking produces results indistinguishable from, and in many cases superior to, charcoal-based methods. Educational brochures were distributed throughout, and demonstrators were available to answer individual questions on electricity costs, appliance pricing, and installation requirements.

The practical demonstrations were particularly effective in dismantling one of the most persistent myths in the eCooking market: the belief that electric cooking is expensive. Seeing actual energy consumption figures displayed alongside freshly cooked meals helped shift consumer perceptions in ways that verbal explanations alone rarely achieve.

Power availability presented an intermittent operational challenge during the event, as the large number of exhibition booths placed strain on the local grid supply — a challenge that is itself a useful data point on infrastructure readiness for eCooking scale-up.

These interactions provide SESCOM teams with valuable direct consumer feedback on pricing perceptions, preferred appliance types, and common misconceptions — intelligence that feeds directly into product positioning and communications strategy.The reach of the campaign extended beyond Dodoma. On 5 June 2026 — World Environment Day — TaTEDO-SESO’s Moshi office participated in Kilimanjaro Region’s Environment Week celebrations in Waila, Rombo District. The event, attended by approximately 500 people including the Rombo District Commissioner and senior local government officials, provided an important opportunity to engage rural and peri-urban communities directly.

Awareness Session held in Rombo, Kilimanjaro (photo credit: TaTEDO-SESO).

Engaging community members at events they attend for their own civic and environmental interest — rather than at dedicated commercial fairs — is a particularly effective strategy for reaching first-time audiences who may have limited prior exposure to modern eCooking solutions.

National Recognition from Government Leaders

The scale and quality of the campaign attracted significant attention from Tanzania’s national leadership. Over the course of National Environment Week, the exhibition booths were visited by several senior government figures:

  • Hon. Reuben Kwagilwa, Deputy Minister in the Vice President’s Office (Union and Environment), who formally opened the exhibition on 1 June 2026
  • The Commissioner of the Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS), who visited the TaTEDO-SESO booth and commended the organisation’s community education efforts
  • Hon. Hamad Masauni, Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office (Union and Environment), who praised SESCOM and TaTEDO-SESO’s contributions to forest conservation and climate change mitigation

High-level government engagement of this kind is significant beyond ceremony. When ministers and senior officials publicly affirm the importance of clean cooking transitions and commend the work of organisations delivering those transitions, it generates media visibility, encourages replication by other actors, and signals political will that supports enabling policy environments.


AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE
At the closing ceremony of National Environment Week, TaTEDO-SESO received an Award from the Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania, H.E. Emmanuel Nchimbi, in formal recognition of its outstanding contribution to environmental conservation, promotion of clean cooking solutions, and efforts to reduce forest degradation across Tanzania.
This national recognition reflects more than three decades of sustained effort by TaTEDO-SESO and social enterprise SESCOM to make clean, affordable cooking technologies accessible to Tanzanian households, institutions, and communities.
 Vice President’s Office, United Republic of Tanzania, 5 June 2026. (Photo credit: TaTEDO-SESO).

TaTEDO-SESO receiving an Award from the Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Hon H.E. Emmanuel Nchimbi, in recognition of environmental conservation, and promotion of clean cooking solutions (photo credit: TaTEDO-SESO).

What the Campaign Reveals: Lessons for eCooking Scale-Up

Taken together, the May–June 2026 campaign offers a set of evidence-based insights with relevance beyond Tanzania for programmes aiming to accelerate clean cooking adoption across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Experience beats information.

Across every venue from the NMB workplace to the Tanga Trade Fair to the Dodoma exhibition grounds, the most effective conversion tool was not a brochure or a price list. It was a bowl of freshly cooked food, prepared in minutes before the visitor’s eyes, paired with an electricity meter showing the cost. Demand-side barriers to eCooking adoption are often enrooted in experience deficits; closing those deficits requires direct, sensory engagement.

Multi-platform reach amplifies impact.

By operating simultaneously across workplace outreach, trade fairs, national exhibitions, and community-level events, SESCOM and TaTEDO-SESO reached audiences that would not have encountered each other — from urban bank employees in Dodoma to rural farmers in Rombo District, from international development actors at the Norwegian Ambassador’s residence to local traders in Tanga. No single platform can serve the full diversity of Tanzania’s potential eCooking market.

Partnerships enable scale.

The campaign’s breadth was made possible by active collaboration with TANESCO and REA. Co-branded exhibition booths, shared logistics, and aligned messaging enabled TaTEDO-SESO and SESCOM to extend their reach beyond what either organisation could have achieved independently. This model — combining the commercial acumen of a social enterprise with the government connectivity of a civil society organisation and the infrastructure reach of a utility — points toward a powerful template for eCooking market development.

Infrastructure constraints are a market signal.

Power supply limitations experienced during the Dodoma exhibition are a reminder that eCooking scale-up must be pursued in parallel with grid reliability improvements. SESCOM’s engagement with on-bill financing programmes through TANESCO and with mini-grid operators in rural areas reflects an understanding that demand and supply must be developed together.

Looking Ahead

The recognition awarded by the Vice President of Tanzania at the close of National Environment Week is a signal, not a finish line. With over 28,000 EPCs already distributed through SESCOM and several mini-grids in villages facilitated by TaTEDO-SESO management, the foundation for scale is in place. The May–June campaign has demonstrated that consumer demand, once properly informed and activated, is real and growing.

As Tanzania advances towards its national clean cooking targets, SESCOM and TaTEDO-SESO will continue to combine market development with advocacy, community education with commercial delivery, and local partnership with international collaboration. The goal is not awareness as an end, but awareness as the first step in a journey that ends with a Tanzanian household cooking cleanly, affordably, and sustainably — every meal, every day.

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AI disclaimer: AI was used to brighten some photos and for language spell checks.