M-KOPA is featured as the Top Ten Most innovative Company for making solar energy affordable for the poor.
Since launching its pay-as-you-go solar-energy service in Kenya in 2012, M-KOPA has grown to serve 150,000 households in east Africa, adding 100,000 in the last year alone. M-KOPA aims to provide households living without electricity a cheaper, safer alternative to kerosene. While a typical off-grid household in Kenya spends $200 per year on kerosene, M-KOPA offers solar home systems for an initial deposit of $35, followed by 365 daily payments of 43 cents, which can be made through the M-PESA mobile payment service.
“You can make solar affordable by making it a daily payment,” says M-KOPA’s cofounder and managing director, Jesse Moore. “Affordability to a low-income person is about very small amounts on a daily or weekly basis because cash flows are very tight. It doesn’t work to offer somebody a monthly plan.”
M-KOPA is providing power to 500 new homes each day and aims to reach over 1 million homes in Kenya by 2018. It estimates that the global market for off-grid energy spending is around $50 billion per annum, with east Africa accounting for 7% to 10% of that. Read More..