Off-grid power has put rural Kenya on inclusion path
Around 40 per cent of Kenyan homes under-the-grid are still unconnected. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Connection to off-grid solar and appliances is unlocking new economic activities in low-income communities across Kenya.
This is driving greater economic inclusion for millions of people and helping us reach our Vision 2030 targets.
Vision 2030 points Kenya towards being an industrialising, middle income status country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens in a clean and secure environment.
Clean, renewable power is absolutely central to this.
But just as the grid continues to expand, so too, does the number of homes and dwellings without power.
These households are not just in remote areas.
A disproportionately large share of unelectrified Kenyans actually live ‘under-the-grid’ — directly beneath existing grid infrastructure.
A 2017 World Bank study on infrastructure in Africa found that around 40 per cent of Kenyan homes under-the-grid are still unconnected.
Technological advances in off-grid solar are helping off-grid homes improve welfare, productivity, and income generation.
The global industry body for off-grid solar — the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (Gogla) has just released industry-wide data to prove it.
Gogla’s report titled Powering Opportunity: The Economic Impact of Off-Grid Solar talked to several thousand customers from seven different off-grid companies.
It found that nearly two thirds of homes (58 per cent) had been able to start a new economic activity thanks to the appliances on their solar home system.
These activities are classified into three categories: using the SHS in a business, spending more time at work and getting a new job.
Small shops and kiosks that are able to stay open for longer and operate safely with solar lights and also offer phone charging and TV services.
Gogla’s new research throws some additional light on this element of confidence.
Affordable power and appliances give Kenyans confidence to do more.
Seventy per cent of households getting a solar system actually helped someone in that house get a new job due to the additional productive hours available to them.
Even more important is the fact that 94 per cent of the households in the research reported an improved quality of life.
This can only be made possible by offering such households an affordable and accessible package of power and appliances.
I am encouraged to see the mini grid industry is waking up to the need to offer appliances with power.
I expect that grid power marketers will be looking long and hard at these innovations to understand that a connection is only half the story for a low-income home.
True gains come when reliable power can be used on productive appliances and add-on services.
MUGO KIBATI, Board chair, M-Kopa Solar.
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