Across rural Zambia, small solar home systems and lanterns have transformed daily life. Between 2018 and 2022, more than one million small solar devices were sold across the country. These range from tiny solar lanterns to home kits capable of powering radios, TVs and phone chargers.
Children can now study after dark, phones stay charged, and families no longer rely entirely on smoky kerosene lamps.
However, these solar systems are neither funded nor subsidised by the government or development finance institutions. And affordable credit for rural people to buy clean energy is rare. Buying small solar systems has created new financial pressures on households to pay for long term instalment plans.
