Africa’s electricity gap still affects 600 million people. Sun King, a pay-as-you-go solar company, now wants to reach a third of that population by 2030.
The company plans to ship 50 million solar kits across the continent over the next 4 years. The move signals rising investor interest in pay-as-you-go solar and growing pressure on governments to speed up electrification.
Sun King announced the target in Johannesburg during Global Citizen NOW. The plan involves more than 3.8 GW of new distributed solar capacity and about $ 5.6 billion in equipment.
The company says it is already moving kits at scale. Monthly deployments rose from 10,000 in 2017 to about 330,000 today. Management expects monthly volumes to pass one million by 2030.
Sun King operates in 11 African markets, selling everything from basic lighting kits to multi-kilowatt systems for homes, clinics and schools. It says its current products reach 50 million people, most of whom had relied on candles or kerosene before switching.
The model hinges on consumer credit. Households pay small instalments over 12 to 24 months using mobile money. Entry-level payments start at nineteen cents a day. Sun King says it has already issued 1.4 billion dollars in solar loans.
The new commitment includes plans to add 45,000 jobs, expand its retail footprint to more than 1,650 stores, and grow its active workforce to nearly 90,000 people.
Policy teams at the company say growth depends on closer coordination with governments and lenders. The target aligns with broader efforts led by the World Bank and AfDB to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. How will regulators respond to a private company taking on such a large share of that goal?
