Companies

M-Kopa set to launch solar-powered digital TV sets

solar

Ms Jane Mmbone, a beneficiary of the M-Kopa Solar system. PHOTO | FILE

Solar energy financier M-Kopa is set to launch digital, solar-powered television sets targeting customers living in areas with no access to the national electricity grid.

The TVs will be sold to customers on the company’s existing model where users pay a small deposit and Sh50 daily for a year after which they take full ownership of their solar lighting systems, including other gadgets like lamps.

This means that M-Kopa essentially bundles the hardware supplies with credit to boost uptake from customers, most of who are low-income earners.

The TV package is expected to be available from mid this year. M-Kopa says free-to-air channels will be available on the sets, whose prices could be announced during Wednesday’s launch.

M-Kopa’s current power system costs an estimated $200 (Sh20,000) and includes a solar panel, two LED bulbs, an LED flashlight, a rechargeable radio, and adaptors for charging a phone.

The kit comes with a two-year warranty, and its battery is designed to last at least four years.

M-Kopa uses technology to control customer defaults, with those failing to pay having their gadgets switched off remotely from the firm’s headquarters.

The company, which was launched by former telecoms executives in 2012, says it has connected more than 280,000 homes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to solar power and is adding over 500 new homes each day.

All revenues are collected in real-time via mobile money systems such as Safaricom’s M-PESA, with embedded GSM sensors in each solar system allowing the firm to monitor real time performance and regulate usage based on payments.