Kenya’s M-KOPA Gives Phone-Loans to Put Solar Power in Reach

M-KOPA LLC, a mobile-technology startup, is extending credit to low-income earners in Kenya to buy solar-power systems that are otherwise out of their financial reach, Managing Director Jesse Moore said.

The company, whose name means to borrow in Swahili, has sold 1,000 units since it began offering the product commercially in June, Moore said in a phone interview yesterday from Nairobi, the capital. The target is to reach sales of “tens of thousands” of units within a year, he said.