More than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are not connected to an electricity grid and must rely on expensive and hazardous fossil fuel-based sources of energy to meet their lighting needs. In 2007, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched lighting Africa, a pioneering initiative to develop a commercial market for the manufacture and sale of quality solar lanterns across Sub-Saharan Africa. Energy sector management assistance program (ESMAP) has played a key role in this successful outcome by providing United States (U.S.) 750,000 dollars in technical assistance to help design lighting Africa’s conceptual framework and fund the program’s implementation. ESMAP assistance - provided through the World Bank’s Africa Renewable Energy and Access Program (AFREA) has also financed a wide range of technical and market development studies that underpin lighting Africa and continue to guide the program today.