Rural lighting is a major deal, considering that millions of households in Kenya are not connected to the national electric grid. As expected, the homes most affected are those of low income earners and these unfortunately are people who also cannot afford solar energy either.
Towards solving the lighting challenge, d.light has come together with Musomi to provide affordable solar solutions to low income earners across the country. d.light is an off-grid solar solutions provider while Musomi is a micro lender that targets customers who are traditionally considered “un- credit worthy”, “unattractive” or “high risk”. d.light products have impacted more than 72 million lives globally, bringing it closer to its target of 100 million lives by 2018.
Through the collaboration of the two, Kenyans can now access Solar Home Systems through an arrangement whereby Musoni Kenya absorbs the cost upfront and then the customer services the loan over a certain period. This partnership will go a long way in both pushing the green energy agenda as well as providing lighting products to people outside the power grid.
Given that both d.light and Musomi are targeting the same type of customers, this partnership stands to work smoothly and to benefit a lot of people. The East African market is particularly unique as micro lenders are also leveraging on 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.”
“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.
