M-KOPA vs Sun King vs d.light: Solar on Credit, Compared

The paybills, because getting this wrong is the expensive mistake

M-KOPA 333222, Sun King 323458, d.light 215550, each with your own account or reference number from your installation paperwork. Two warnings. Sun King is widely published online as 323456; that number is wrong, and two digits apart is exactly how a month's payment reaches a stranger. And Sun King and d.light get confused constantly, including in published guides, because they sell similar-looking lamps through similar agent networks. Check the brand on your own unit before you pay. Full detail on Sun King and d.light.

CBK register status, the one hard difference

Per the Central Bank of Kenya Directory of Digital Credit Providers updated 10 April 2026, M-Kopa Loan Kenya Ltd is licensed, dated 30 January 2023. Sun King (Greenlight Planet) and d.light do not appear in that directory. That is a public-record observation, not a legal conclusion: the Business Laws (Amendment) Act No. 20 of 2024, in force 27 December 2024, brought PAYGo expressly within the CBK licensing regime, but registration is a moving target and there are transition provisions. The practical consequence for a buyer is narrow and worth knowing: the CBK Code of Conduct complaint route, including Consumer Protection on 0800 720 000, applies to licensed lenders. A written contract is enforceable either way. Verify current status yourself before signing, because this can change between our check and your purchase.

How the lock works, on all three

1. Pay a deposit at an agent and take the system home.
2. Pay instalments by M-PESA. Each payment buys a block of unlock time.
3. Fall behind and the unit stops working. It is not repossessed, and nobody comes to the house.
4. Pay again and it works again, usually within minutes.
5. Finish the plan and the system is yours outright, permanently unlocked.

Why we are not ranking them on price

None of the three publishes a complete Kenyan price list covering cash price against financed price, and all three change SKU pricing, deposit thresholds and terms regularly. Figures circulating in comparison articles are generally compiled from marketing materials and interviews rather than disclosed by the lender, and they age badly. Pricing across the three is, on what we have seen, close enough that it is rarely the deciding factor anyway. We would rather publish the structure accurately than a ranking built on numbers we cannot stand behind.

What actually decides it: the agent, not the brand

The agent network is the product. The agent installs the system, takes your deposit, fixes the fault when a panel or battery fails, and is the person you can physically find when the unit will not unlock after a payment. A slightly cheaper system from a company with no agent near you is the worse deal, every time. Before you choose, ask neighbours who already have a system which company's agent responds, and how fast. That one question will tell you more than any comparison table, including this one.

The part all three share, and it is the important part

The total you pay over the plan is more than the cash price. That is what financing is. It can still be the right decision, because the alternative for many households is kerosene, which is expensive, dangerous and buys you nothing at the end. But go in knowing the total, not the daily figure. Get the cash price, the deposit, the number of instalments, the total payable and the early-settlement figure in writing, then run them through our true cost of device finance calculator before you commit. See also solar financing in Kenya.

What we have not verified

Deposits, instalment amounts, plan lengths and total repayments for all three. None of them publishes a complete Kenyan price list, all three change SKU pricing and deposit thresholds regularly, and shop-quote field research is still outstanding, so there are no shilling figures on this page by choice rather than by oversight. The CBK register status above is dated to the April 2026 directory and can change; check it yourself before signing, particularly for Sun King and d.light, which were absent from that edition. Paybills are verified against the manifest and the providers' own payment guidance.