Lights Up Over 81,000 Households in Malawi

The program, a Power Africa initiative, awarded a total of USD $2 million in results-based grant funding to four solar home system (SHS) companies. Yellow, a leading supplier of Pay-As-You-Go SHS in Malawi, received grant funding under this program. Yellow has been operating in Malawi since 2018, selling affordable solar-powered systems to low-income customers. The company's sales agents install the devices, bringing electricity to many households for the first time. Yellow's product range includes high-efficiency LED lights, a console that charges phones and has a radio, and, more recently, smartphones. The company's sales agents also offer a smartphone to customers at a cheaper price based on their "Dolo-level," which increases as the proportion of their already paid-off unit grows. This initiative helps ensure credit protection on the SHS units and enables customers to build a credit history. With the support of the grant, Yellow has scaled rapidly, hiring around 600 sales agents, and increased sales volumes while maintaining a high-quality credit portfolio. The company has also opened a new sales office in Northern Malawi. The SHS Kick-Starter Program was catalytic in enabling this growth, and Yellow strategically used the grant funding to raise further capital. As a result, the end of the grant funding will not stop the growth trajectory of the business, which is well-positioned for success in the market. The program has had a significant impact on the lives of rural households in Malawi. As of June 2021, Yellow had connected a milestone 81,919 households to electricity, bringing affordable, reliable, and clean energy to nearly 410,000 people across the country. The program's success demonstrates its potential to continue having life-changing impacts beyond the grant period by improving the living standards of rural households and enabling income-generating activities for communities across Malawi.