M-KOPA Solar connects 250,000 homes to power in East Africa
A local 'pay-as-you-go' off grid energy provider has announced connecting 250,000 homes across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to a solar power system.
M-Kopa Solar which provides payment plan for supply of a solar lighting system, a radio and phone charging apparatus said the achievement was in line with its target to connect one million customers by 2018 to its solar power systems.
The firm’s Managing Director and Co-Founder Jesse Moore said the growth in connected customers was satisfactory as the region renewed focus on renewable energy.
Kenya's $540M Garden City opens
Garden City, East Africa’s first integrated residential, retail and office development, officially opened last night with the announcement of a new Business Park.
Developeb by Actis, an emerging market investor responsible for the Junction Mall and Nairobi Business Park, Garden City is a $540m flagship project comprising one of the largest retail malls in East Africa, offering retail, over 400 residential units, offices and a central park.
It is also home to the largest solar paneled carport in Africa, situated on the mall’s roof.
Kenya eyes Chinese tea market
Nairobi - Kenya on Tuesday said that it is currently formulating strategies in order to export tea into the Chinese market.
The Interim Head of the Tea Directorate Elizabeth Kimenyi told Xinhua in Nairobi that the Chinese market will help to diverse tea export markets.
"We want to reduce our reliance on traditional markets such as Egypt, Britain and Pakistan in order to reduce price fluctuations," Kimenyi said on the sidelines of the Africa Coffee Outlook Conference which kicked off in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Kenya signs nuclear power deal with China
Kenya has signed a deal with China as part of the east African nation’s plans to have a nuclear power station by 2025, the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board (KNEB) said Thursday.
Kenya plans to set up its a first nuclear power plant with a capacity of 1000 MW by 2025, the board said, with ambitions to boost that to 4000 MW by 2033, and to make nuclear electricity “a key component of the country’s energy” production.
The memorandum of understanding, signed in China, will enable Kenya to “obtain expertise from China by way of training and skills development, technical support in areas such as site selection for Kenya’s nuclear power plants and feasibility studies,” the KNEB statement said.
