UK solar firm Azuri technologies and Wananchi’s Zuku have partnered in the launching a pay-as-you-go satellite TV package targeting households without electricity in the Kenyan market. The service combines solar home power, 24-inch TV, satellite dish and Zuku Smart+ entertainment package with 48 TV and 21 radio channels. The package will offer 5 hours of normal TV viewing per day, a solar home system providing four bright home lights, mobile phone charging and a rechargeable portable radio.
The service is initially available in selected regions of Central Kenya and will be rolled out progressively nationwide in 2017, targeting the over 5m households that are currently outside of the power grid. Customers pay the top-up rate via mobile money, allowing customers to use the system as much as they want for the credit period. After 2 years of payments, customers will own the equipment and continue to pay only for the satellite service.
The package will be charged Kshs. 150 a day.The payment plans are limited to daily pay, however, customers can choose to pay for a longer duration by multiplying the daily pay with the intended duration. The package will in total cost Ksh 109,500 over the two year period in which the user pays for the service. Azuri says it will not be vetting its customers and will instead allow them to tap into the solution and start using it. On the risk of default, the firm says as customers pay before they access, they face no risk of this.
