MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “The Value of Pay-as-you-go Solar for Mobile Operators: Insights from Customer Journeys in Benin and Côte d’Ivoire,” Published by GSMA

This analysis of data from Benin and Côte d’Ivoire addressed “the impact of mobile consumers adopting pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar on their mobile usage.” Based on 120 interviews with end-users of PAYG technologies, the authors found that access to energy via solar home systems resulted in: (1) about a quarter of users opening new mobile money accounts or reopening old ones to pay to activate the systems; (2) users increasing mobile money usage – beyond transactions to pay bills – by 27 percent to 113 percent, depending on the region; and (3) mobile operators collecting 9 percent more revenue from new customers relative to customers in a control group. Meanwhile, users of solar home systems more frequently: had their phones charged and on, used their phones later in the evening, earned more money, kept balances as e-money rather than cashing out, purchased cash-ins to their mobile money accounts, paid for subscriptions via mobile money, used additional services, switched service providers, and generally acted with “more confidence [and] more trust in mobile money.” In contrast, customers of PAYG solar home systems who did not increase their mobile usage reported having had electricity previously, having insufficient mobile connectivity or purchasing the home solar system on a rapid schedule.