Pay As You Go solar lanterns: Twenty two households reduce kerosene use in rural Siaya.
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Bondo, Siaya County
Peter Omondi's grandmother still lights her home with a kerosene lamp.
This is pretty common in Bondo. The nyangile flickers, smokes, and burns the lungs while also costing a pretty penny. So, Peter and ten others came up with a plan to distribute solar lanterns to off-grid households using a Pay As You Go model. Families pay a small weekly fee until they own the lantern, and the group uses those repayments to buy more lanterns.
They participated in our training sessions, which focused on Pay As You Go accounting and managing customer defaults. They learned how to keep track of weekly payments from twenty-five households without getting their records mixed up. They also figured out what to do if a customer misses two payments: pause the service instead of taking back the lantern. This approach helps keep customers on their side rather than turning them hostile. Additionally, they learned how to calculate battery lifespan and plan for when replacements are needed.
After the training, they applied for a loan of KES 100,000 at a 9.5 percent interest rate and bought twenty-five solar lanterns. The first batch arrived in great shape, but the second batch had five units with faulty batteries, which the supplier replaced after two weeks.
Now, twenty-two lanterns are actively in use, although some three households dropped out during the delay. Early feedback suggests that each lantern cuts down kerosene use by about thirty liters per year, and the group is collecting data to confirm this. They’ve also set up a battery take-back system: when a battery dies, the household returns it, and the group sends the used batteries to a recycler in Kisumu.
Peter's grandmother received her lantern in the third month and affectionately calls it her "small sun."
Loan: Group Enterprise Loan – KES 100,000 at 9.5% over 9 months
Green tech: 25 solar lantern kits + rechargeable batteries
Circular economy: Battery take back system + recycling partnership
