Six million Kenyans to use solar light by 2015

Around 6 million Kenyans will use solar lighting in Kenya by the end of 2015, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) said Tuesday.

Estimates indicate that between three to four million depended on solar lighting in 2013, Xinhua quoted IFC Lighting Africa Programme Manager Itotia Njagi as saying.

"The cost of solar technology has come down by 30 per cent in the past three years and this will contribute to the rapid uptake, " Njagi said during the launch of the SunnyMoney Solar lights, a social enterprise owned by British based charity SolarAid that aims to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa by 2020, in Kenya.

Five million out of Kenya's eight million households, he said, are not connected to the national electricity grid. Solar lightning offers a cleaner energy alternative compared to the use of kerosene based lamps.