A Kenyan mobile startup is looking to boost the country’s solar power systems by offering credit to low-income citizens to purchase more energy efficient electricity units that would normally be out of their reach; M-Kopa Managing Director Jesse Moore said in a statement to reporters.
According to the company, they have sold some 1,000 units since beginning to offer the products in June.
Moore added in an interview with Bloomberg news agency that they are hoping to reach sales of “tens of thousands” of units within a year, he said.
“We are giving people a modern, cleaner and longer-lasting technology for less than what they would spend on kerosene or another inefficient substitute,” Moore said in the phone interview.
According to M-Kopa, some 80 percent of Kenya uses kerosene for lighting purposes as a result of a failure of the national grid linking more families and homes.
Often connection fees can cost at least $412, which is a massive sum that most Kenyans simply cannot afford.
M-KOPA said that they believe that by offering the new devices, it will help push the poor in the country into new realms and boost the over IT and electricity sector in the country.
An England-based company Azuri Technologies, also offers similar solar pay-as-you-go units and hopes to distribute 4,000 such units by the end of the year.
Mohammad Awad
