Orange Kenya and GreenLight Planet have come together and have signed a strategic partnership today looking to provide solar lighting to Kenyan homes, limited to electricity.
The two have launched a competitive range of product bundles that include internet enable mobile handsets and solar lamps.
The internet enabled device being bundled with the solar lamps will be officially launched in early march. The telco company is still in the move to improving the quality of its data services as well as expanding its reach to more regions across the country.
The solar lamps come with a 2 year warranty will be available in all orange shops countrywide; and mat be purchased, bundled with the low cost internet enabled mobile phone from orange.
Solar energy is slowly being embraced in Africa, just the other day, Gigawatt Global launched an 8.5MW solar power utility in Rwanda worth $23.7 million and it is the first utility-scale solar project to be under the US-Africa Clean Finance (ACEF) programme; for the same reason, bringing electricity to the unreachable as it is through electricity that technology breeds.
Take for example the mobile phone; according to the Orange Kenya CEO Vincent Lobry said that the mobile phone enlightens people’s mind through communication and information and also connects them with their friends and family as well as the globe through the internet.
It is for this reason that Orange has decided to work with the solar power company to provide affordable internet data as through this solar lamp people will have the means to charge their phones and to keep communication up and running.
Greenlight Planet CEO, Anish Thakkar, said: “Close to 1.5 billion people worldwide still don’t have access to grid-based lighting and often individuals must walk several kilometres to purchase fuel and also to charge their phones at a fee. We are thrilled to broaden the reach of the solar lighting products through this partnership that will give greater access to these products through orange shops throughout Kenya.”
The lamps bundled with the mobile phone will cost Ksh for 3899 for the Sun King mobile Ksh. 4699 for the King Pro and Ksh 8799 for the Sun King Home. The stand-alone solar devices that are not bundleid with the orange mobile device will cost 2900 for the Sun King Mobile Ksh. 3700 for the SunKing Pro 11AND Ksh 7800 for Sun King Home.