PAYGO Solar Software and Mobile Money Integration

What does PAYGO solar software have to do?

At minimum it holds the customer and contract, receives each payment, converts it into credit, and tells the device to run or lock. Around that sit agent management, arrears collection, inventory, and the reports that lenders and funders ask for.

The market is large. GOGLA reported 5.11 million PAYGo units sold in 2025, up 48% and matching cash sales for the first time. Established platforms exist, and many operators use them. Custom work usually makes sense when your product mix, tariff structure or country regulations do not fit what a platform supports.

Arrears handling deserves its own design. Grace periods, partial payments, a reduced-service mode and a clear unlock rule after a late payment all change collection rates and customer trust. Writing those rules as configuration, not code, lets operations staff tune them as the portfolio matures.

• Contract and customer records with KYC fields
• Payment-to-credit engine
• Device lock and unlock
• Agent and field collection tracking
• Funder and portfolio reporting

How do device lock and unlock work?

Each PAYGO device, such as a solar home system, has a controller that either contains a GSM modem or accepts a code. In connected devices, the platform sends a command through the manufacturer's cloud API or a device protocol to enable or disable the unit. In offline devices, the customer enters a numeric token generated by the platform that adds days of credit.

Both need care. Connected locks fail when the device has no signal, so the software must show the last confirmed state and retry. Token generation must follow the manufacturer's algorithm and keep keys in a secure store. Many operators use hardware from different makers, so the software normalizes each into one status model.

Security matters because a lock command is a power over a customer's lighting and phone charging. Commands should be authenticated, rate limited and logged with the staff member or rule that triggered them, so a mass lock by mistake can be traced and reversed.

How are M-Pesa and MTN MoMo collections integrated?

Safaricom's M-Pesa offers Daraja APIs, including paybill or till confirmation callbacks and STK Push to prompt a customer on their phone. MTN MoMo offers a Collections API through its developer portal. Each pushes a callback when a payment completes, and your server must verify, deduplicate and credit it.

Reconciliation is the hard part. Customers pay the wrong account number, pay twice, or pay from another person's phone. The system needs rules for unmatched payments, a queue for staff to resolve them, and a daily match between provider settlement statements and credited amounts. GSMA reported mobile money transactions reached $2 trillion in 2025, but only 25.7% of the 2.3 billion registered accounts were active monthly, so customer payment habits vary and reminders by SMS matter.

How does mini-grid billing differ?

Mini-grids usually bill by energy used rather than by a fixed installment. Smart meters report consumption, and customers buy prepaid units or are billed after reading. The software must ingest meter data, price it against a tariff (which may be tiered or time-based), apply payments and handle disconnection rules. Where meters are offline for hours, delayed readings must not double bill.

What should you confirm before building?

Check the mobile money API access terms in each country, data protection law for customer records, and whether your lenders require specific reporting formats. Vascoh has not published client work in this area, so scope starts from your own process and the vendor documentation, with a sandbox test before any live collection.