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Tag: Okra Solar

  • Okra Solar, Infra Credit eye 25,000 rural Nigerians

    Okra Solar, Infra Credit eye 25,000 rural Nigerians

    Okra Solar and InfraCredit have sealed debt financing deal of a mesh-grid project under InfraCredit’s Climate Finance Blending Facility (CFBF).

    The deal targets no fewer than 25,000 rural Nigerians not connected to the national grid.

    The world’s largest energy access program Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) provides $750million in grants to renewable energy developers in Nigeria. This milestone transaction provides First Electric with the required capital to energize 5,156 households and small businesses across 20 underserved communities using Okra’s mesh-grid technology.

    This project demonstrates that the superior economics of Okra’s technology make mesh-grids a highly attractive long-term infrastructure asset class for investors, even with a $300 per-connection grant, lower than traditional mini-grids. Ultimately these are World Bank-funded grants and this technology reduces the total borrowing required by the Nigerian government, which will be at least 40per cent lower for the same number of households to get access to productive power.

    InfraCredit, a ‘AAA’-rated institution, acted as a critical bridge to scale by unlocking long-term local currency debt. This financial structure allows Nigerian developers to procure equipment and scale operations without exposure to the volatility of currency fluctuations.

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    Speaking on the deal, the CEO of Okra Solar, Afnan Hannan, said: “InfraCredit has proven to be an incredibly innovative partner, truly going above and beyond to ensure the long term success of energy access projects with a blended finance facility and strong focus on productive use enablement. We have spent nine months establishing this initial financial blueprint, setting the path for Nigerian energy developers to finance and scale mesh-grids with less friction and bottlenecks in the future. This deal shifts many communities that were once considered unviable into long-term, bankable projects.”

    CEO of First Electric, Daniel Komolafe, said: “This milestone reflects our commitment to bridging Nigeria’s energy gap through innovation. With InfraCredit’s financing and Okra’s technology, we are demonstrating that clean energy for the hardest-to-reach communities is not just an impact goal, but a commercially viable reality. We are now positioned to scale rapidly and reach tens of thousands more families.”

    This achievement was made possible through the collaboration of key global and local stakeholders, including the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), FSD Africa, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) of Nigeria, and The World Bank.

    Okra Solar continues to empower developers with advanced tools, such as the launch of Pipeline Builder, a tool that allows RESCOs to build and simulate their mesh-grid projects quickly and streamline DARES grant applications.

  • Okra Solar unveils off-grid power solution

    Okra Solar unveils off-grid power solution

    Okra Solar has unveiled Mesh-grid Beyond, a suite of hardware that delivers on three promises to energy developers: power communities further from the grid than ever before, deploy projects faster than traditional approaches allow, and reach everyone, from the productive to the lowest-consuming households – profitably.

    The announcement comes at a pivotal moment for Nigeria’s electrification efforts. With 90 million lacking electricity access, the country offers developers opportunity through progressive regulations and ambitious the DARES (Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up) programme. The challenge has been execution: how to serve remote communities with no mobile coverage, connect low-income households profitably, and do it fast enough to meet aggressive expansion targets.

    Mesh-grid Beyond answers three challenges with an integrated solution that changes the economics of rural electrification revolving around three new products: Sprout, Leaf and OkraNet.

    These products upgrade Okra’s mesh-grid: a solution electrifies communities in a Hub and Spoke approach, giving high quality service tailored to needs of businesses and households, at lower cost and with faster deployment than traditional mini-grids.

    Sprout puts productive users in the centre of mesh-grid design as Hubs. Configurable with up to 2.4kW AC output, Sprout units reach 99per cent of the productive use in a typical community and anchor the mesh-grid around businesses that drive economic growth.

    It’s an integrated design that arrives to the field pre-configured and pre-wired, saving hours per installation, while housing electrical components in a sleek enclosure that also deters power theft.

    Leaf rewrites the economics of rural electrification by enabling a revolutionary price point of under $100 per connection for the majority of households. With mini-grids, over 80per cent of users are considered unprofitable to serve, because their consumption is so low. Leaf addresses exactly these households. It creates household Spokes that take excess power from Hubs, with a meter that leverages OkraNet technology and provides 150W AC power for the majority of household usage, such as phone charging and lights. Even households consuming less than 5kWh per month become profitable, opening up more communities to become commercially viable with attractive payback periods that satisfy both social impact goals and investor returns.

    OkraNet liberates energy developers from depending on cell coverage. Using advanced networking technology, OkraNet allows data to ‘hop’ between households to a central gateway that can be connected to satellite internet or 3G/4G, meaning any community can be energised and handle reliable billing, remote monitoring and automated maintenance. If you can physically reach a community, you can now power it.

    The true magic happens when these products work together. Consider a typical last-mile community, embodying every challenge: remote location with no mobile signal, a few productive users surrounded by predominantly low-income households using minimal electricity, and a grant program requiring commissioning within 12 months, not years. Previously, this community would be written off as impossible. With Mesh-grid Beyond, it becomes a standard, profitable project.

    “Okra’s new products are game-changing. People in Burum have loved having it in their homes, and in the next year we’re going to be using them to deploy faster, reaching more communities, and I’m confident that we can maintain profitability.” CEO of First Electric, Daniel Komolafe, said.

    The suite represents a fundamental shift in the industry: from carefully selecting profitable customers to achieving profitable universal access. Every developer can now embrace the full mission of electrification without compromising financial sustainability.

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    CEO of Okra Solar, Afnan Hannan, said: “Our mission has always been to unlock opportunities through energy access. Mesh-grid Beyond gives Nigerian developers the tools to scale faster, hit productive use, and electrify communities that were previously out of reach.”

    With Nigeria’s universal access goals and Mission 300 targeting electricity for all by 2030, the window for action is narrowing. Developers and financiers are scrambling to get into the DARES program, which is supercharging the industry’s efforts. Mesh-grid Beyond arrives precisely when developers need it most: delivering proven technology with superior reliability and twice the deployment speed of mini-grids. Mesh-grid Beyond cuts the grant requirement in half compared to mini-grids, giving the Nigerian government more connections and reach for less funding, and it’s the first off-grid technology that demonstrates a pathway to full grant independence.

    Nigerian DESCOs can begin deploying mesh-grids with the Beyond suite immediately. The complete solution is field-tested, DARES-compliant, and ready for scale. Okra Solar provides comprehensive support including training, project planning assistance, and dedicated technical backing for large deployments.

    Energy developers looking to deploy as fast as possible under the DARES program or those simply bold enough to connect more of the hardest to reach households with reliable, renewable energy access can learn more and contact our team at www.okrasolar.com.