Micro-finance partnership to enhance access to solar energy

Off-grid solar solutions provider d.light has signed a partnership with micro lender Musoni to enable low-income consumers in Kenya to access solar energy at affordable prices.

More than 47 million households in Africa and Asia have no electricity and do not make enough money to afford connection to the grid. d.light is working around this challenge by collaborating with microfinance institutions (MFIs) to absorb initial costs for its low-income customers.

Through the collaboration with Musoni Kenya, Kenyans can access Solar Home Systems through an arrangement whereby the financier absorbs the cost upfront and then the customer services the loan over a certain period.

“The priorities between Musoni and d.light are aligned. Also, the type of customers we are targeting are the same as those being targeted by Musoni,” Mr Jacob Okoth, d.light’s Managing Director for Africa, said.

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The solar energy provider has also had success with a similar arrangement in India where it has reached millions of customers through MFIs. East Africa presents a unique case considering how MFIs are leveraging mobile money to reach the rural unbanked. The d.light solar and Musoni partnership involves sharing of each organization’s client base to accord more people the opportunity of going up the economic and energy ladders.

Musoni CEO Stanley Munyao described the new partnership as an “opportunity to participate in green energy as part of the global movement for sustainable resource management.”

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“Our clients now have access to clean and reliable sources of energy that improve their quality of life and save on costs going towards kerosene for lighting purposes. Our drive now is to ensure that majority of our clients’ households are lit using renewable energy, and our financial capacity is opened up to the larger d.light client base to  provide our much needed financial services,” he added.

d.light solar is a pioneer in solar portables and a market leader whose products have impacted more than 72  million lives globally, bringing it closer to its target of 100 million lives by 2018.

[crp]