West Africa Solar takes first steps forward
- mrronnie3
- Jun 30, 2016
- 1 min read
At the side of the Solar & Off-Grid Renewables West Africa summit that took place in Ghana, Lonomics' Ron Margalit talked to PV Tech about the possibilities of pay-as-you-go off-grid electricity in West Africa:
“If you want to be able to finance and pay for the systems via the customers, most people do it by phones and most companies rely on third-party solutions such as mobile money, which is very available in places like Kenya – not so much in West Africa or Nigeria where we operate,” says Ron Margalit, head of impact financing at Lumos.
The solar company is working in partnership with MTN, Nigeria’s largest telecommunications provider, so that customers can use their existing airtime balance with MTN to buy electricity from Lumos, paying for daily, weekly or monthly instalments. The solar systems can only operate on days for which electricity has been purchased giving a greater level of security for the panels.
Margalit adds: “There is definitely a need for some more risk-orientated financiers, whether it would be DFIs or multilateral development banks or impact funders to come and take the initial risk of financing. The biggest challenge of this sector would be eventually how to [get] commercial oriented and institutional investor funders.”
