Tanzanian based solar finance business wins International Award

Lais with Rachel Kyte, Special Representative of UN Secretary General for Sustainable Energy and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All

NAIROBI, KENYA: SunFunder, a solar finance business based in Tanzania is the winner of this year’s Ashden International Gold Award.

The business attracted Ashden award judges through its model which includes the unlocking of capital for debt finance which now enables solar companies to make power an affordable reality for the millions living off-grid.

SunFunder has so far provided over Sh800 million of finance to solar businesses in ten countries, helping them to offer solar electricity to thousands of people, and next year is hoping to grow sufficiently to be able to provide $50 million of finance.  SunFunder also wins the 2016 Ashden Award for Innovative Finance, supported by Citi. 

On announcing the Gold Award winner, Ashden’s Founder-Director Sarah Butler-Sloss made an impassioned speech about the boom in renewable energy that she witnessed on a recent visit to Kenya and Tanzania. 

“In Kenya I visited a market town on the outskirts of the Maasai Mara nature reserve with no grid power but where SteamaCo, one of last year’s Ashden Award winners, has helped install a solar powered mini-grid.  For the first time shops have lights so they can stay open after dark, cafes and bars can serve cold beer and have TV or music playing.  The butcher has a fridge.  A cinema has opened and there is an internet café.  

“I then went to Tanzania to visit Off Grid Electric, an Ashden Award winner from two years ago, who supply households with affordable and accessible solar power that users pay for through their mobile phones.  Even when there is grid power nearby Off Grid’s is cheaper than connecting to it.”  

She continued: “Their distribution and selling techniques have been revolutionised, thanks to our support programme - and this has helped contribute to their extremely rapid growth. When they won two years ago they had sold a total of 10,000 solar home systems.  Now they sell 10,000 systems a month.”