M-KOPA has won the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize at the annual Abu Dhabi sustainability week, the world's leading renewable energy and sustainability awards. The market leader in 'pay as you go' energy services for off-grid customers is the first company headquatered in Sub-Saharan Africa to win in the enterprise and SME categories.

M-KOPA solar combines mobile payments with GSM sensor technology to enable the leasing of solar power systems and has so far connected more than 150,000 homes in East Africa to solar power and is adding over 500 new homes each day.

Solar customers buy a solar home system with an initial deposit of $35, followed by 365 daily payments of 43 cents which is cheaper than their daily spend on kerosene. After completing the payment package, customers own the system outright.

The Zayed Future Energy Prize brings with it a US$1.5 million (KES133 million) prize. M-KOPA Solar will use these funds to launch a training and development program called M-KOPA University, which will provide world class technical and business skills development to employees, sales agents and partners.

M-KOPA University will be hosted in the company's Nairobi headquarters to provide an onsite and remote curriculum. By 2018 M-KOPA University will provide training to over 1,000 staff and 3,000 sales agents across East Africa, as well as to M-KOPA's licensing and distribution partners in other parts of Africa and Asia.

The US$4 million Zayed Future Energy Prize, established by the United Arab Emirates government in 2008, recognizes organizations, schools and individuals across the world that have made significant contributions to the future of renewable energy and sustainability.

In seven years, the Zayed Future Energy Prize winners and finalists have positively impacted the lives of more than 150 million people around the world – delivering access to clean energy and water, championing the deployment of renewable energy and creating hundreds of jobs.