Hey. I'm a co-founder at Nowala. You are definitely correct in stating that we're not interested in charity. As someone who has lived in West Africa and has man

Hey. I'm a co-founder at Nowala. You are definitely correct in stating that we're not interested in charity. As someone who has lived in West Africa and has many family members living in these villages, I can say that charity is not the answer to every problem. We believe in giving these individuals equal access to the opportunities afforded by the financial markets. Great question on the lifespan and returns! The lifespan is 5 years. The break even period you're referring to are for homes in rich nations that have high energy consumption and use inverters for A/C appliances. They're extremely expensive and not useful for people in the villages of Sierra Leone. The loans provided through Nowala help people in the villages get access to units that are actually affordable for them over a two year period and meet their very limited energy consumption needs. You can check out the solar panel details here: https://www.engineeringforchange.org/solutions/product/sun-king-home-120/#:~:text=The%20product%20has%20a%202,expected%20lifecycle%20of%205%20years https://www.engineeringforchange.org/solutions/product/sun-k.... Also good questions on repair. We partner with solar panel distributors on the ground in Africa. They actually run existing businesses in a fast growing industry that enables people without energy access to get electricity through solar. Our partner in Sierra Leone, Ignite Power has installed over 100K solar panels across Africa. If a solar panel breaks, they handle the maintenance.