Lighting Africa's latest overview of off-grid lighting market trends has been released.  Summary charts attached to this post.  Full report here.

Among the findings:

• Since 2009, the market in Africa has experienced dramatic growth—starting from approximately 300,000 lighting products in Africa in 2009 annual sales grew at 90-95% per year and reached approximately 4.4 million units by the end of 2012.
  
  
• Sales of Lighting Global quality-verified PLSs [pico-powered lighting systems] have grown by 300%. The high volume of sales of quality-verified PLSs suggests an evolving consumer base that is becoming more experienced and aware. Self-reported sales data from quality-verified manufacturers indicate that there were close to 1.4 million quality-verified PLSs in the African market by Q4 2012. According to our best estimates, this represents more than a quarter of the total number of lighting products4 in the market today.

• The PLS market has witnessed the entry of new players. The overall number of manufacturers selling PLSs in Africa has grown sharply from 20 in 2008 to approximately 80 today, and, in tandem, the number of manufacturers of quality-verified PLSs has also increased— from six in 2010 to 25 currently.

• The size and diversity of players have also changed. Not only have several multinationals signaled their serious and long-term commitment, but also, existing players have transformed from small, social start ups to fully professional and maturing businesses.

• Approximately two-thirds of the major manufacturers supplying lighting products to Africa have their factories and production units based in China and these have accounted for almost 90% of estimated cumulative sales up to 2012.