NICE

• NICE International is a franchise chain of service centers that makes ICT accessible for people at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). The NICE centers find their origin in the first Better Future Leadership Experience, in the Gambia in 2003. Continuing upon a dialogue between Better Future and women of the Jamisa skills centre – who could not read or write, yet saw great potential in internet, communication and energy – participant Paul van Son (Essent GmbH) got together with Ad van Soest (CEO of Econcern) to start the Energy4All Foundation. One of the initiatives that Econcern developed and the Foundation supports is NICE International.
• The services NICE offers to the communities range from high quality internet, IT education, mini-cinema, lights and battery charging facilities, to drinks, ice and a reading corner – all under one NICE roof. Using the latest equipment and sustainable energy sources like solar panels, the shops do not suffer from power failures and high energy prices. All shops are locally owned.
  Better Future helped NICE with the selection of project sites, training of employees - incorporating elements like entrepreneurship, marketing and management - and integration of NICE into the local communities.
  After opening four centers in The Gambia,
• NICE is ready to explore other countries. The ambition is to become the largest franchise chain for customers at the BoP, setting up 250 centres in 10 countries by 2020. With the cooperation of Energy4All, Essent and the Rabobank, this ambition is one step closer to becoming reality. As Ruud Nijs, head of the CSR Department at Rabobank said: “NICE is a typical BoP company: the largest global growth market in which development and business innovation go well together. This is what you call social entrepreneurship.”
  
  
• More info:
  www.nice-international.com
  www.energy4all.org