It’s evident that the low affording capacity of rural communities is the biggest deterring factor for not being able to buy solar products and modernize their life. Rural residents had only two options to buy solar products- either by 100% upfront, which is not possible for most of the people or through a MFI loan, which has cumbersome requirements and procedures. Moreover, people who live in deep-rural settings are marginalized since solar distributors and financial service providers don’t want to go there to avoid risk and additional costs.
To alleviate this problem, Rensys is implementing a project that couples products with financial solutions through a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) business model. Households are expected to pay a down payment and the remaining amount is paid off in a period of up to 2 years which give increases their affording capacity. There is no interest rate, no collateral required and clear procedure.
The products being distributed with this project are the following;
- 12 WP Solar home system
- 55 WP Solar TV system and
- Different capacity small-scale solar irrigation pumps
We use a platform that “communicates” with the PAYGo enabled products so as to enforce payment and after-sales-service support.
Job creation is another milestone of the project which is opening jobs for youths along the value chain.
The project, with 6 years of life span, is being implemented in partnership with AECF and M-Birr, which is our financial partner for payment transfer. The total number of households to be impacted by this pilot project is 6,500.00 households.
