Bridging Africa’s rural energy divide

800 million people worldwide – 85% of them in Africa – have no access to electricity. Millions rely on expensive, polluting and unsafe energy sources, such as kerosene for light and diesel generators for power. This energy deficit restricts economic growth, education, healthcare and overall quality of life, especially in rural communities.

Sun Kingleads the solar home system transformation

Sun King, formally known as Greenlight Planet, designs, finances and installs solar systems. Sun King designs its own range of solar solutions, from entry-level solar kits that provide multi-room lighting, phone charging and appliance power, through to larger solar inverter systems capable of powering homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, and more. Through a network of 41,000 agents across Africa, Sun King goes home by home and business by business, selling, installing and servicing its products.

To make solar affordable, customers can pay in installments over 12 to 24 months, often for around USD 0.19 per day, roughly equivalent to what many previously spent on kerosene, battery-operated torches or candles. Today, Sun King is deploying approximately 350,000 solar kits every month across 11 African and two Asian countries.

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  • Photos by courtesy of Sun King

New products: cooking, cooling and connectivity

Harnessing the same product design, smart financing, and hyperlocal distribution channels, Sun King has expanded its offering to underserved consumers across Africa, combining the launch of its own smartphone and solar-powered fridge-freezer with the scale-up of its clean cooking technologies and services.

Unlocking access with Pay-As-You-Go financing

To date, Sun King has extended USD 1.9 billion in financing to its customers to over ten million customers; over 90% of Sun Kings products are sold with the support of financing. Customers can pay primarily via mobile money, the use of which has grown tremendously over the past years. In a country like Uganda, for example, more than 70% of the population uses mobile money, making real-time, remote solar financing payments frictionless and practical.

The investment from Hivos-Triodos Fonds – granted through the bond issuance platform of Symbiotics – will enable Sun King to further expand its distribution of solar kits and solutions to rural communities in sub-Sahara Africa.