Azuri, GVEP Awarded $1 Million USAID Grant to Bring Pay-As-You-Go Solar to Rwanda

Azuri Technologies has received a $1 million award from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) to support the establishment of pay-as-you-go solar power in Rwanda. The program is being delivered in partnership with GVEP International (Global Village Energy Partnership), and aims to both deploy solar home systems in Rwanda and act as a template for deployment of pay-as-you-go solar lighting systems in future countries with low access to electricity.

Azuri is the leading provider of pay-as-you-go solar in sub-Saharan Africa with its Indigo technology. Users are able to avoid the normally large up-front costs of solar systems and instead pay for them over small weekly installments. Customers can charge their mobile phone and have eight hours of lighting per day for typically US$1.50 a week.

The DIV grant will fund the creation of a distribution channel and the supply of 10,000 Indigo pay-as-you-go solar systems in Rwanda, where 83% of the population are currently not connected to grid electricity. It is expected that this will then grow under its own finance in the coming years.

“This is an important project for Azuri, working with GVEP to deploy pay-as-you-go solar in a country with a less established history of solar power,” Azuri CEO Simon Bransfield-Garth said. “The success of the project will provide important pointers to help pay-as-you-go solar become deployed widely in sub-Saharan Africa.”

GVEP has substantial experience and government relationships in Rwanda. Over the next 18 months, GVEP will work with Azuri and a local distributor on the business model in Rwanda. GVEP will also perform detailed research to evaluate Indigo’s social and economic benefits and impacts.

“We will be training small regional retailers and agents on sales techniques and general business skills, and advice the in-country distributor on their marketing strategy and its implementation”, explains David Disch, GVEP’s country manager for Rwanda.

In contrast to countries such as Kenya and South Africa, characterized by a well‐established national infrastructure, including mobile banking, widespread awareness of solar power, well‐funded distribution channels and somewhat higher per capita incomes, Rwanda represents a more challenging market for this business model, and therefore the demonstration effect achieved by the DIV funding will be all the more powerful.

The long term goal of the project is to sell one million Indigo units over five years, benefiting five million people in Rwanda and elsewhere, leading to reductions of 50% or more in household energy costs, cheaper and more convenient phone charging, improved health and safety, and more productive hours in a day for homework, domestic tasks and income generating activities.