In a press conference held at its headquarters Thursday 9/4/2009, the Jordan Micro Credit Company (Tamweelcom) announced the launch of the initiative “Our Environment, Our Health … Our Responsibility”, which aims to facilitate access to high efficiency solar systems for productive poor and low income people.

The initiative was launched in cooperation between Tamweelcom, the National Energy Research Center (NERC), and Nur Solar Systems, with the aim of maximizing benefits from renewable solar energy and limiting the consumption of traditional energy resources, as well as preserving the clean environment.

Tamweelcom’s CEO Mr. Ziad Al-Refai said that “this initiative came after extensive study of the best ways for the Company to serve all parts of the community and the national economy as a whole, until it materialized in its final formal, concluding that facilitating access to solar systems will achieve many benefits.”

He added that “this will contribute to upgrading the standard of living of the target group by minimizing the energy bill and will improve the environmental situation by reducing CO2 emissions resulting from the various types of traditional energy resources.”

Al-Refai said that “it is the responsibility of all of us, as non-profit organizations and as a company working in the microfinance sector, and in cooperation with the government and private sectors, to improve the environmental impact and lead efforts towards the best use of resources.”

In his remarks, Al-Refai stressed that Tamweelcom endeavors to provide financial and non-financial services upon royal directives with the aim of alleviating poverty and unemployment, as well as improving the environmental and health impact for the poor and low income people.

Engineer Malek Kabariti, NERC President, said that “the use of solar energy for daily household purposes saves 70% of the water heating bill when solar heaters that transfer solar rays into heat and store them, are used.”

Talking about Tamweelcom’s initiative and its effect in the service of the community, Kabariti stressed that “the use of solar heaters is feasible for the economy as a whole, because it reduces reliance on the other forms of energy, and in turn reduces the cost of imports and helps ease the deficit problem in the balance of payments, from which the Kingdom suffered in particular when oil prices rose to unprecedented levels, and this in itself confirms the need for working with all parts of society to start using renewable energy resources, especially solar energy that is abundantly available in the Kingdom.”

It is worth mentioning here that the government has recently exempted all solar heating systems from customs fees and the sales tax, which will noticeably contribute to the reduction of their selling price to citizens and raise the level of their use.

Tamweelcom is making this product available as part of its social goals and its responsibility towards the environment, which focuses on the potential for inducing positive environmental changes through the microfinance sector.

Engineer As’ad Za’tar, Director General of Nur Solar Systems, stressed the importance of solar energy, because of the positive impact it has on the environment, as opposed to gas emissions and the ensuing diseases that affect people, the country and the community.

He conveyed Nur Solar Systems’ pride in reaching an agreement with Tamweelcom and the latter’s efforts that seek benefit the largest possible part of society and give them access to solar heaters. This makes Jordan an environmentally-friendly country and raises the level of availability and production, which would lead to further cooperation in the near future and expansion in new solar energy projects.

Tamweelcom is the leading and pioneering company in the microfinance sector in Jordan and has been ranked one of the ten best micro credit companies in the world for 2007 and 2008 consecutively. It is a non-profit organization that is fully owned by Noor Al-Hussein foundation, which operates under the King Hussein Foundation.