One million solar lamps sold by one company

摘要

By 2017 the solar lamps market in Africa will be booming, according to SunnyMoney, a social enterprise that sells solar lights in off-grid communities in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Founded 6 years ago, in March SunnyMoney sold its millionth solar light benefiting some 6 million people. With 598 million living without electricity in rural Africa, the growth potential for the solar lamps market is enormous, but challenges are equally big. A major difficulty has been reaching out to remote villages with poor infrastructure, basic retail networks and only a handful of potential customers. "We needed a model that would allow us to cover vast, sparsely populated areas with weak transport links and communication infrastructure," says an analysis of the Tanzanian market.