The government has launched a $47 million (Sh 4.7 billion) fund under the Kenya-Off-Grid Solar Access Project(KOSAP) to drive provision of clean cooking solutions in 14 marginalized counties.
The Results-Based Financing(RBF) and Debt facilities targets the private sector and specifically aims at establishing sustainable supply chains for marketing and sales of solar home systems.
The RBF and Debt facilities under the KOSAP are financed by the World Bank and implemented by the Ministry of Energy.
“The country has made great strides in achieving connectivity with access to electricity standing at 75 percent through both grid and off-grid options," said Joseph Njoroge, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Energy.
He said the dispersed settlements in the marginalised counties make off-grid solutions the only viable alternative for access to electricity.
The facilities are in three parts: $12 million(Sh1.2 billion) Solar services providers result-based financing, $30 million(Sh 3billion)Solar service providers debt facility, and $5million (Sh 500 million) Clean cooking solutions challenge fund.
Under the KOSAP Solar services providers RBF, the financing provided will compensate solar home systems service providers(SSPs) for the initial, incremental and opportunity costs associated with an expansion of operations in the KOSAP service territories.
The SSP debt facility will enable private sector SSPs to borrow money for acquiring inventory to sell in KOSAP counties as well as to extend consumer financing to households to purchase the products, for instance Pay-As-You-Go technology.
The clean cooking solutions challenge fund will encourage the uptake of clean cooking stoves to mitigate the environmental degradation and economic and health concerns that arise from the use of low-efficiency stoves.
For this, the fund will provide select distributors with financial support to enable them to market their stoves locally.
The government has appointed the consortium of SNV-SunFunder to manage the facilities on its behalf.
The eligibility criteria and requirements for the private sector for accessing the facility are available at the KOSAP facility website:www.kosap-fm.org.
