Solar Nigeria says it’s lit up 92,000 homes

Solar Nigeria, launched in 2014 to build a market for distributed solar energy in Nigeria and funded by the UK department for International Development (DFID) said it has provided solar power to 92,000 Nigerian homes, almost half of them in the north, between January and July 2016.

It said all systems were supplied on full commercial terms with the householder paying cash, taking a loan or renting the equipment. Equipments supplied range from single bright lamps to Solar home systems able to power multiple lights, a television and a fan.

The result maintained the pace set in the first quarter of 2016, when 49,000 homes received solar lighting or power systems through the programme. It brings the total of homes equipped thanks to support from Solar Nigeria and its partner programme Lighting Africa to 182,000 since mid-2015.

“Expansion of this market represents by far the fastest route for increasing the share of Nigeria’s population that have access to modern energy,” said Leigh Vial, Solar Nigeria’s consumer markets lead.

Supported by the Federal government, the programme’s first 16 partners, selected through a competitive process in 2015, included a mix of international and Nigerian firms, including veteran solar suppliers and highly qualified new entrants.

In Kano, Kaduna, and Adamawa states, Solar Nigeria provided support through Total Nigeria Plc to distribute its Awango solar products to customers in remote locations, and through a partnership with the Murtala Muhammad Foundation to organise resellers’ clubs. Funds from Solar Nigeria help defray risk so that resellers are supplied on 100 % credit terms.

“You have to find ways to go to communities with a last-mile strategy,” said Osaki Enumro, communications manager at Total Nigeria Plc. “That’s what this resellers program is all about.”

In Kaduna, Solar Nigeria supports Sosai Renewable Energies, a woman-owned local business that has expanded from pollution-reducing cookstoves to water filtration and solar energy products.

“Solar Nigeria has given us peace of mind to allow customers to pay in instalments,” said Habiba Ali, Sosai’s founder and chief executive.

A new round of grants, focusing on financial institutions, is under way, with recipients expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Solar Nigeria works to build Nigeria’s market for decentralised solar energy by removing market barriers through targeted grants to qualified solar suppliers and finance institutions, so they can build capacity and provide solar systems to consumers on commercial terms.

ISAAC ANYAOGU