Low income households in Kenya now have access to clean lighting, thanks to an innovative mobile phone application that utilizes a GSM-enabled pay-as-you-go solar solution.

The M-KOPA Solar, which provides affordable solar-powered lighting and mobile charging to rural Kenyans on a pay-as-you-go basis, has made the d.light Solar Home System available to the public. The system comes with three light bulbs and a cell phone charging component. It is geared toward meeting the lighting and phone charging needs of the average Kenyan family. 

To use the d.light Solar Home System, an individual makes a down payment of KSH2,500 ($29), after which they pay a daily fee of just KSH40 ($0.47) for one year, using another mobile application known as M-Pesa (mobile money).

The user then pays for usage at their convenience. Amos Simiyu, who has been using the solar system since October last year, is one of those users. 

"It has come as a big relief to my family, because I have minimized our use of kerosene and the children can study at night without worrying about the kerosene smoke anymore," said the 50-year-old father of eight, who hails from Chwele Town in Bungoma District in western Kenya.

He acquired the device for KSH16,900 ($197), which he got on credit from Safaricom, the mobile phone service provider that invented the technology.

Simiyu said tha,t although he is required to make a daily payment of KSH40 ($0.47), he usually makes a lump payment of KSH400 ($4.7) in order to settle the debt quickly. He now has only 25 days left before he will settle the payment in full.

Another fan of solar power is Lilian Evayo, a mother of three children who works as a greengrocer. She said that she no longer has to walk long distances to town or pay to charge her mobile phone.

"I am now able to save $0.2 in daily phone charging fees," she said.

Despite the fact that the system has come to the rescue of low income families in the country, there is one downside to using the technology, said Evayo. It lies in the fact that the user is disconnected if he fails to make his daily payment.

The high cost of solar energy is one of the major challenges that has made the wide-scale adoption of such technology difficult in Kenya, acknowledges Bob Collymore, the chief executive of Kenya's Safaricom mobile service provider.

The fact that most households in Africa cannot afford to use solar products has kept their penetration on the continent at less than 2 percent, something that M-KOPA Solar can change. 

"M-KOPA Solar has been developed to remove this barrier by making solar home systems affordable and accessible to low income consumers," explains Collymore.

Nick Hughes, Chairman of M-KOPA, who also worked as the Global Head of M-PESA for Vodafone Group, said that this new product is designed specifically to suit the needs and budgets of Kenyan consumers.

"By working with Safaricom we can spread this new service to all parts of the country," said Hughes.

The mobile phone service provider currently has 1,000 clients who subscribe to the M-KOPA service. The service is available in the towns of Eldoret and Kitale, with plans underway to scale it nationwide.

Bénédicte Walter, a communication consultant with Lighting Africa, said that while the Kenyan Government is working on bringing electricity to rural areas, the population is growing faster than the grid, which means many Kenyans will not be connected to the grid in their lifetime. According to Lighting Africa, kerosene is the primary source of lighting for 68 percent of Kenya's population.

"Modern off-grid lighting products, such as solar portable lanterns, offer an affordable, immediate and interim solution for populations who are still waiting to be connected to the grid," said Walter.

(Reporting from Kenya)