WINTER 2014
new income-generating activities. In one of
our study sites, we met a woman who had
already begun selling cold fruit smoothies to
her neighbors, within a month of gaining an
electricity connection.
as much as $200 over the course of a year to
finance a limited solar home system product.
What makes their financial model work is
that the daily payments can be processed
through the M-PESA mobile money platform.
Given the high cost of rural electrification,
there is a need to rigorously document the
socioeconomic impacts of modern energy.
There is also a need to better understand how
newly connected households will consume
energy moving forward. Our research team
is currently implementing a randomized
evaluation of grid connections in Western
Kenya, and through this project, we hope to
shed additional light on these questions.
So while there is a general need for additional
financing options for grid connections, the
example illustrates that there is an equal
need to develop innovative billing and
collection technologies for financed grid
connections that will incentivize both lenders
and borrowers in a sustainable way.
4. What are the options available to poor
rural Kenyan households to finance
electricity installation and continued use?
Currently, the options available for
households to finance installations and
appliance purchases are limited. Although
the national utility had offered a financing
plan in the past, the program encountered
many challenges. There is, however, high
demand for financed ene ɝ