Solar for Enterprise Development

The Challenge
A significant portion of rural communities in Kenya remain undersupplied with electricity, and as such their economic potential is not fully harnessed. This is in part due to the focus that state grid connection projects have aimed for connectivity for consumption rather than connectivity to production. The lack of viable economic opportunities in the rural areas is one of the main contributors to the challenge of youth unemployment in Africa. Youth unemployment has been cited as a time bomb by development organizations and continues to feature as priority issue in the Kenyan governance landscape. It is unclear whether as yet, whether enough is being done to diffuse the growing unemployment problem and its attendant challenges. This has set in motion the perennial challenge found in rural communities in Kenya linked to underinvestment and lack of job creation, and the steady tide of rural-urban migration that has robbed most rural communities of their productive youth, exacerbating the problem of rural poverty.

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