- Date
- 17th September 2026
- Categories
- eCooking, Scaling eCooking
By the TaTEDO-SESO Communications Team.
In August 2026, TaTEDO-SESO and SESCOM teams carried the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) message from a landmark showcase in Dar es Salaam to farmers’ exhibitions, a national festival in Zanzibar, and communities across six regions of Tanzania to demonstrate, sell, and inform people about what clean cooking energy is meant to serve.
On any given afternoon this August, the smell of pilau or roasting bananas drifting from a TANESCO or REA exhibition pavilion in Arusha, Dodoma, Mwanza, Tanga, or Zanzibar did more than inspire visitors eager to know how it is now possible to cook with electricity. It was proof, cooked in real time, that Tanzania’s clean cooking transition is not a policy document; it is a hot meal, an electric pressure cooker, and a family deciding to change how it cooks.
A Showcase Becomes a Springboard
On 6 August, the British High Commission gathered government officials, development partners, financiers, schools and programme beneficiaries in Dar es Salaam to mark the achievements of Phase I of the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme: 36 schools converted to electric cooking, 460 technicians trained in electric appliance repair and maintenance, more than 14 million Tanzanians reached through the “Pika Smart” campaign, and new financing tools such as on-bill financing beginning to bring electric appliances within reach of ordinary households.
Speaking at the event, the British High Commissioner to Tanzania, Marianne Young, underlined the importance of continued partnership and reaffirmed the UK Government’s readiness to continue supporting electric cooking initiatives in Tanzania. The Ministry of Energy’s Director of Clean Cooking Energy, Nolasco Mlay, echoed that commitment on behalf of the government, while MECS representative Dr Anna Clements looked ahead to a second programme phase involving partners such as the Benjamin Mkapa Foundation and the CRDB Bank Foundation’s School Trust Fund. Environment Officer Catherine Pye closed proceedings with a call to keep building on what the partnership has already achieved.
The SESCOM team on hand comprised Janet Mollel, Shabani Sekuba, Shukuru Meena and Florian Zacharia, cooked pilau, grilled beef, bananas and chicken for guests and handed out leaflets. No appliances changed hands that day; the real selling, as it turned out, was about to begin elsewhere.
From the Showcase to the Showground: NaneNane 2026
Within days of the Dar es Salaam event, three TaTEDO SESO and SESCOM teams were already stationed at Nanenane, Tanzania’s national Farmers’ Day exhibitions, running from 1 August in Arusha and Dodoma and from 2 August at the Lake Zone grounds in Mwanza. For nine days in Arusha and eight in Dodoma, teams cooked a different local dish each day, such as makande, pilau, mishkaki, chips, rice and beans — turning Electric Pressure Cookers and Air Fryers into a live demonstration of how quickly, cheaply and cleanly a family meal can come together on electricity. Visiting dignitaries took notice: Kilimanjaro’s Regional Commissioner, Hon. Nurdin Hassan Babu, toured the Arusha pavilion twice and asked how the appliances could help farmers and livestock keepers directly.
The exhibitions doubled as a recruitment ground. Dora Meela, Faustine Minja and Neema Massawe joined the SESCOM agent network out of Arusha; Teresia Mihayo and Nkwaya did the same in Dodoma. By the time the two gates closed, Arusha and Dodoma alone had generated more than TZS 12.7 million in combined retail sales — evidence, field teams say, that curiosity at the cooking table converts into a purchase once people see, smell and taste the difference. In Mwanza, under the Lake Zone banner “Tambua Soko, Ongeza Tija Kuelekea Dira ya Taifa 2050” (Know the Market, Increase Productivity Towards the National Vision 2050), demand for Electric Pressure Cookers and Air Fryers was, by the team’s own account, the strongest of the three days it reported.
Curiosity at the cooking table converts into a purchase once people see, smell and taste the difference.
Presidents, a Festival, and a Church Hall
Not every stop was a farmers’ fair. From 11 to 14 August, SESCOM joined TANESCO at Zanzibar’s Kizimkazi Festival, a national celebration of trade, culture and investment opened by the President of Zanzibar, Dr Hussein Ally Mwinyi, and closed by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan. More than 320 visitors passed the SESCOM education table over the four days; several who could not buy on the spot left their contact details, planning to complete a purchase through the Dar es Salaam office rather than ship an appliance across the water.
Two days earlier, a smaller but no less telling moment unfolded at Mt. Teresa Catholic Church in Buza, Dar es Salaam, where a SESCOM and TANESCO team folded clean cooking education into a UWAKA community meeting — cooking makande and grilling bananas by Air Fryer for a congregation that walked away with TZS 530,000 worth of appliances and a lot of practical questions answered. Later in the month, at Tanga’s “Elimu, Ujuzi na Ubunifu” exhibition in Usegera, delegations from Sokoine University of Agriculture, Ardhi University and Mzumbe University stopped by, and a local ward councillor brought community leaders to see the technology for themselves, a reminder that clean cooking is as much in a conversation with institutions as it is with individual households.
The Month, By the Numbers
– 6 regions reached
– 14 million people reached by Pika Smart Campaign
– 36 schools received eCooking Services
– 6 new sales agents recruited
– 320+ visitors educated in Zanzibar alone
Nationally, the backdrop remains the achievements MECS marked on 6 August: 36 schools converted to electric cooking, 460 technicians trained, and more than 14 million Tanzanians reached through the Pika Smart campaign. August’s exhibitions were, in effect, that national picture playing out one region and one meal at a time.
Listening While Cooking
Perhaps the most encouraging sign of the month came not from a sales receipt but from a suggestion. In Tanga, customers and field staff proposed that Electric Pressure Cookers include a visible on-screen display of electricity usage while cooking, a simple, tangible way to let a doubtful household see the savings for itself. Days later, the same team heard a second, practical request: a larger, 12-liter Air Fryer capable of cooking two dishes side by side, sized for the kind of extended family that gathers around a Tanzanian dinner table. Both ideas have been logged for product development, a small but real example of a national campaign that, a month into the road, is still taking its cues from the people it is trying to reach.
What It Adds Up To
From a diplomatic reception in Dar es Salaam to a rain-soaked afternoon in Tanga, August 2026 traced the full arc of Tanzania’s clean cooking transition, policy commitment at the top, and a hot plate of pilau at the bottom. As MECS moves toward a second programme phase and SESCOM’s agent network keeps growing one region at a time, the month’s simplest lesson may be its most important: when people can taste the difference, they will buy in.
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Featured photo, top: TaTEDO-SESO staff Ms Janet Mollet demonstrating eCooking Appliances to the British High Commissioner to Tanzania, Marianne Young and the Ministry of Energy’s Director of Clean Cooking Energy, Nolasco Mlay.
AI disclaimer: AI was used for spell checking.