d.light, a global provider of solar-powered household products and finance for low-income households, has secured a $30 million securitization facility from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB Group) to meet the growing demand for off-grid solar products in Tanzania.
The facility has the capability to purchase up to $125 million of receivable assets from d.light, which will use the capital to scale up its low-cost Pay-Go personal finance service in the country. The service allows customers to pay for d.light’s affordable solar products in installments over time.
d.light has now raised $490 million in total securitized financing since 2020. The financing model leverages the payments of existing and future customers for solar products as collateral to raise funding to grow the business.
d.light CEO Nick Imudia said, “This new financing from TDB gives us the extra funding to reach more low-income families and households in Tanzania via our Pay-Go business, in a way that is affordable for our customers and sustainable for our business.”
“Expect further expansion of this facility by d.light into other major sub-Saharan African markets during 2023,” he added.
Michael Awori, CEO of TDB, said, “Access to energy is critical to the sustainable development of the continent, especially for the most vulnerable off-grid communities. As one of the leading renewable energy financiers in the region, we are delighted to extend this second facility to d.light, this time in Tanzania.”
He praised d.light’s track record of reaching over 1.6 million people through Pay-Go model in 2022, creating close to 2,000 jobs, and averting over 1.3 million tons of CO2 and black carbon emissions with solar replacing kerosene lamps.
Tanzania is the fifth most populous country in Africa and its population of 63.6 million people is spread out over a wide geographical area. According to the World Bank, only 40 percent of the population have electricity access: the majority currently don’t have grid connectivity and a reliable power supply.
d.light has been selling its products in Tanzania since 2008, a year after the company was founded. It has an office in Arusha City, Tanzania, that employs over 50 full-time employees.
d.light’s distribution and after-sales service network serves some of the most remote and hardest to reach areas of Tanzania. The company aims to continue to grow its distribution footprint to enable more communities to benefit from its range of safe, reliable, and affordable solar-powered products.