Take a rapidly growing mobile phone industry, add an inadequate energy supply coupled with frequent power cuts, and you have a market ripe with opportunity for the expansion of portable solar lighting products.

According to the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank, the number of African mobile users is expected to overtake the number of households connected to the electrical grid in 2011.

This growth in mobile phone usage heightens the need for innovators to come up with portable solar products to fill the energy gap, driven by a basic requisite in mobile communications — the need to charge a cellphone.

Kenya in particular is singled out as a market where the gap between mobile phone ownership and grid presence is most striking, and demand for off-grid phone charging has long outstripped grid supply.

Twenty per cent of Kenyans have access to grid electricity, but mobile subscriber penetration stands at over 42 per cent.

The gap is expected to double by 2015: Only 32 per cent of the population is expected to be connected to the grid by then, but mobile penetration will have reached 75 per cent.

Such a rapidly expanding mobile industry makes the country a huge market for the adoption of off-grid charging solutions, such as portable solar lighting systems.

With over 150 million off-grid mobile phone users across the continent, phone owners are forced to charge their phones at high costs.

For example, the report highlights that currently, an off-grid mobile user in Kenya spends between $0.10 and $3 per cellphone charge, with monthly charging expenses amounting to over $10.

The adoption of solar-based solutions is expected to be an economically viable option to filling this gap, according to the report by Lighting Africa, an initiative of the World Bank.

Low grid connection

According to the report, as of 2009, grid connection levels across Africa stood at just 35 per cent. East Africa’s grid connection is the lowest among the African regions: A mere 15 per cent of households in the region are connected to national grids.

In gross terms, this amounts to nine million grid users, and over 50 million households with no access to electricity.

Simply in terms of absolute off-grid populations, Tanzania is the least electrified of East African markets, with 7.2 million off-grid households.

This is followed by Kenya (6.2 million), Uganda (5.5 million), Rwanda (1.7 million) and finally Burundi (1.4 million).

Still, these numbers do not adequately capture the electricity scenario on the ground.

First, grid connection statistics may inflate the actual state of electrification by labelling households living in proximity to the grid as “grid-connected,” even though the household itself may not actually be connected to the grid owing to financial or other constraints.

Second, supply shortages are common across the continent, and power outages are a daily occurrence across much of East Africa.

Research conducted by Lighting Africa reveals that more than one-third of the grid-connected population experiences power loss at least once a week, lasting anything between a number of hours and at times days.

In the region, Rwanda experiences the greatest number of power outages with approximately 14 blackouts per month, followed by Burundi and Tanzania, both with 12 blackouts in a month.

Ugandans can expect 11 blackouts a month. Kenya’s power grid is relatively more reliable, but this still translates to an average of seven blackouts a month.

Contrast this with other world economies: Japan experiences an average of only four minutes of interrupted power service a year.

The need for alternative lighting in the region is huge, therefore, not only for a primary lighting source but also as a backup in times of power outages.

Kerosene is the dominant energy source for the off-grid populations in Africa — a primary light source for over 53 per cent of African households.

Other energy alternatives include candles, wood, animal dung, battery powered devices, and for a minority, diesel-powered generators.

These lighting alternatives are typically expensive and often both dangerous and environmentally harmful. Take kerosene, for instance.

While there is wide variation in kerosene prices across the continent due to its availability, transport costs and subsidies, the average price is relatively high and has grown rapidly in tandem with the price of oil.

The average kerosene price in Tanzania is $0.9 per litre. In Kenya that price is $1.0, rising to $1.2 in Uganda and Rwanda; in Burundi, kerosene costs $1.7 a litre.