According to the World Energy Outlook 2013 nearly 1.3 billion people are without access to electricity and that means that almost one-fifth of the global population faces barriers that limit chances for a good education, economic opportunities and healthy well-being. Kenya is among those countries where the share of population with access to electricity is less than 20%.
At the same time, a majority of Kenyans use mobile phones, and mobile banking is popular among the "unbanked" due to the high costs of alternative, informal transfer systems. Angaza Design, one of REEEP's Kenyan partners, used this opportunity and developed an innovative pay-as-you-go technology that enables its customers to pay in small amounts for solar products and do it via mobile phone. Thanks to the pay-as-you-go system the provider did not have to compromise on quality and could provide high quality solutions.
The REEEP Annual Report presents this (read more on page 48) and more success stories of REEEP's actions that contribute to achieving energy access and at the same time bigger share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. In India, REEEP partner SELCO has helped over 160000 households obtain solar lightning systems (page 53) and in Peru, where approx. 6 million are without access to electricity, REEEP partner PowerMundo created a ground-breaking network to bring access to isolated regions (page 47).
