Investment opportunities in solar power and renewable energy in Kenya

Saleem Abdulla, Managing Director of Sollatek Electronics talks about investment opportunities in solar power and renewable energy in Kenya. Partnering with Sollatek is one of the best investment opportunities.

That’s one of the challenges. The other challenge is that you have these financing issues you mentioned?

As I said, we seem to be in a coveted position. The big players in the industry seem to be looking for local distributors like us. We seem to tick a lot of boxes for them. We have a 30-year track record in the region. We are a solid, steady company, with a very capable workforce and we have experience conducting business in this region, which not everybody has. This means many people would like to work with us and they come and offer us opportunities to partner with them, in order to distribute their products.

We see the potential in the opportunities that we are offered. However, we want to be able to do justice to these opportunities, in other words we want to be able to focus and provide the required level of service, which demands investment in terms of both time and money, etc. And sometimes we find we just can’t do that. Finance is a problem, because holding a new range of products, building up the brand, having sufficient inventory and building up the distribution chain for that brand all require a good deal of money, and we find we are unable to cope with that at times.

What are the solutions available to you?

In terms of solutions, we are always looking for investors, i.e. people who can finance our business opportunities. We try to move away from conventional solutions, such as going to the bank, because of the high cost of financing locally, but especially since our products make an impact on society. They help improve our customers’ quality of life. Someone who was using a kerosene lamp, which is expensive, dangerous and harmful can now use a solar light, which is much cheaper in the long run, is good for his health, enables him to improve his quality of life and is also environmentally friendly. So we try and use this as an appeal to those who wish to have an impact on this front and who have the money to invest in local businesses like ours. We reach out to them, sometimes they reach out to us, and we try to find a middle ground.

What kind of investors are they? Are these funds aimed at promoting renewable energy, are these international players in the industry or people who are not in the sector at all and who are looking to invest?

I think they are largely people who are in some way affiliated to the sector, such as social impact funds. There are many of these in the Western world, including Europe and the United States. These are the kind of people who are looking for locally-owned companies like ours, with a track record of success; so they are the ones who approach us, and at other times we approach them.