Rural solar energy initiative gets Sh56.6 million financing boost

photo:courtesy

The rural roll-out of solar power in Kenya is set to accelerate with the announcement of a new $550,000 (Sh56.6 million) innovative financing deal.

Finance platform Lendable has secured the debt financing for Raj Ushanga House (RUH), the Kenyan distributor for Azuri Technologies, which is a provider of Pay-as-you-go (PayGo) solar energy solutions.

Under the initiative, capital is secured by future customer revenues from a high-quality portfolio of over 7,000 RUH PayGo solar customer contracts. It is the first such financing by Lendable for a PayGo energy company.

Raj Ushanga House Chief Executive Raju Haria said the financing would enable the firm to reach more customers.

“We will also be able to significantly expand the availability and variety of Azuri solar home systems in Kenya,” he said in a statement.

Lendable has pioneered a technology platform, which uses a proprietary risk engine to analyse the quality of diversified receivable portfolios and enables alternative lenders to secure debt financing from experienced offshore investors purely against these portfolio cash flows.

The firm has already secured $600,000 (Sh61.8 million) in debt financing for Tugende, a Ugandan company that offers a lease-to-own model to help boda-boda riders own their own motorcycles.

Lendable is currently working on four transactions in Kenya and Uganda. Lendable’s technology platform connects directly to the management information systems of the PayGo provider.