d.light, a global provider of transformational household products and access to affordable finance for low-income households, is announcing the close of a new securitization facility sized at $176 million. This facility will purchase receivables in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
d.light will use this facility to build on its PayGo consumer finance offering, further empowering low-income households and communities without electricity to have solar-powered products. The multi-currency facility targets the provision of reliable, renewable energy to about six million people in three years in the above-mentioned countries.
This is a new facility provided by African Frontier Capital, a social impact-focused asset management firm. With this, d.light has secured a total purchasing value of USD 718 million across five securitized financing facilities since 2020.
According to d.light CEO Nedjip Tozun, the facility is important in furthering the company’s mission of providing people with affordable, clean, safe, and sustainable energy. He noted that millions of off-grid families in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will benefit from this solar energy.
Tozun further commented that this facility is the first time d.light has receivables-based financing facilities in each of their PayGo markets, which include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Each of these facilities shall ensure that d.light remains cash flow positive and eliminates further external equity fundraising to support growth.
Eric De Moudt, founder and CEO of AFC, hailed this achievement as an evidence-driven approach to financial innovation toward the integration of the most vulnerable communities into the financial mainstream, enabling clean, modern, energy access with very key social and economic benefits. He thanked d.light for leadership in the off-grid solar sector and expressed pride in the said partnership.
Since 2020, d.light has been leading the way with securitized finance, which it uses to provide power for its solar-powered household products across sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania. It was therefore during the beginning of the year that d.light celebrated the early redemption of the entire senior debt by its $110 million securitization facility, Brighter Life Kenya 1 Limited (BLK1), from internally generated cash flows—an absolute first in the off-grid solar sector.
D.light has operated jointly with its distribution partners since 2010 in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, establishing its own operations in these countries in the next subsequent years—a demonstration of long-term commitment to energy access improvement within this region.