Spark to use €2 million Oikocredit investment to boost solar businesses in Africa

Spark is set to receive a credit line of €2 million which will finance the supply of our Spark energy kits. Our pay-as-you-go, modular solar solutions and appliances will connect an estimated 500,000 off-grid households in Sub-Saharan Africa to electricity with this investment.

Oikocredit’s support will allow Spark to reach people in low-income and rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and other countries. With our Spark Kits, users get clean energy and a path to ownership of off-grid solar products that can be extended to fit their growing energy needs. Access to renewable electricity supports households in improving their living standards, and increases their earning potential. 

Bas Pijnenburg, Finance Director at Spark, said: “Cooperating with Oikocredit enables us to provide renewable electricity to significantly more homes and villages. Working with Oikocredit means we have a partner with a strong presence in the sector. Combining our strengths, we believe Oikocredit and Spark can lead the way towards a better, solar-powered future for under-served households and communities.”

Siebren Wilschut, Investment Officer at Oikocredit, said: “We’re very pleased to support Spark in its expansion to ensure access to energy and other technology services across Africa. We’re proud to be partnering with Spark, a game-changer in the industry, and to support the company as it continues to scale up and increase its social impact by helping low-income people become healthier, improve their livelihoods and be better connected.”

Since 2013, Spark has pioneered and built our unique solar energy solutions. We have sold more than 75,000 energy kits, improving the lives of over 375,000 people and providing technical capacity building to 2,700+ solar sales agents. Spark solar home systems have generated enough renewable energy to avoid approximately 200,000 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent by replacing kerosene lanterns and diesel generators. 

Our modular plug and play Spark Kit is flexible, scalable and can be tailored to the different energy needs of customers. Our vision is to inspire and enable the communities we work in to build energy grids together. We do this by facilitating a technology intervention to get communities their first step on to the energy ladder. We also give our consumers the freedom to customise their energy kits; to purchase only the things they truly need and give the freedom to expand their household energy use and appliances in steps.