d.light to supply solar and cooking stoves for $150m World Bank project in Kenya

d.light, a global firm that sells household items and product financing targeting low-income households, has been selected to take part in the latest round of the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP).

KOSAP is a program set up by the Kenyan government and funded by the World Bank with the aim to close the energy access gap in the country by providing electricity and clean cooking solutions to remote and traditionally underserved areas of the country not covered by the national energy grid.

d.light’s participation in KOSAP will see it provide solar power and clean cooking solutions to over 150,000 people who currently lack access to electricity and clean cooking.

To address affordability, d.light’s solar products will be sold on an instalment plan via d.light’s “PayGo” service, said the firm in a statement.

The program covers 14 counties in total including West Pokot, Turkana, Marsabit, Samburu, Isiolo, Mandera, Wajir and Garissa. Others are Tana River, Lamu, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta and Narok.

According to 2022 data from the World Bank, 24% of Kenya’s population of 54 million people still lack access to electricity, with more than 34% of Kenya’s rural population without access.

In addition, only 30% of the entire population currently have access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking. The majority still use harmful and polluting fuels like unprocessed biomass, charcoal, coal, and kerosene.

“Kenya has achieved sustained economic growth and social development in the last decade or so, and its economy is the largest and most developed in eastern and central Africa,” said d.light’s Managing Director for Kenya, Karanja Njoroge. “However, many of its citizens still live without access to electricity, especially in rural areas outside the major towns and cities. These areas are also vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including droughts and desertification.”

Kenya was one of the first African countries in which d.light launched operations back in 2008. The company’s headquarters for Africa is in Nairobi.

The government of Kenya launched the KOSAP program in November 2018. The program consists of four components with a total budget of $150 million provided as a grant from the World Bank.

The first component is provision of mini-grids for community facilities, businesses, and households, while the second component targets to provide standalone solar home systems and clean cooking solutions for households.

The third component offers standalone systems and solar water pumps for community facilities while the fourth targets capacity building for development, planning and regulation of power and renewable energy at a county government level

d.light is participating in the second component, which has been allocated $15.7 million of the total budget. Of this amount, $9.3 million is earmarked for off-grid solar solutions and $6.4 million for clean cookstoves.

The KOSAP program is part of Kenya Vision 2030, the long-term development blueprint for the country first launched in 2008 by then President Mwai Kibaki. Vision 2030’s aim is to transform Kenya by 2030 into an industrialized, prosperous, competitive middle-income country that provides a high quality of life to all its citizens in a clean and secure environment.

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