British International Investment, the UK's development finance institution, has committed $7m in debt financing to Okra Solar, a provider of mesh-grid technology for off-grid communities in Nigeria. The facility is designed to accelerate access to reliable and clean electricity in a country where an estimated 90 million people lack dependable and affordable power.
The investment will enable Okra to purchase equipment for approximately 150,000 new electricity connections, potentially providing power to 750,000 people in rural Nigeria for the first time. Okra currently operates more than 13,000 household connections with over 2.3MW of installed capacity. According to the company, the financing will allow it to achieve more than 10 times its current level of connections. The facility addresses a critical constraint for distributed renewable energy expansion: access to flexible working capital to buy equipment upfront and in bulk. By procuring components at greater scale, Okra expects to reduce equipment costs and slash delivery times from four months to roughly two months.
The British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Jonny Baxter, said the investment reflects partnership between the UK and Nigeria on sustainable development and energy security. Geoffrey Manley, Director and Head of Infrastructure and Climate Debt at BII for Africa and South Asia, stated that access to appropriate financing can be as important as the technology itself for innovative energy companies. He added that the facility will help demonstrate the commercial viability of mesh-grids as part of Africa's distributed renewable energy market.
The investment arrives as Nigeria scales distributed renewable energy through the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up programme, implemented by Nigeria's Rural Electrification Agency with World Bank support. Mesh-grids qualify for results-based financing under this initiative, which supports new electricity connections. Okra's CEO, Afnan Hannan, said the facility allows the company to stock components before developers sign agreements, dramatically shortening project timelines. Equipment now reaches Nigeria in less than one-third of the previous timeframe, he said, enabling communities to access electricity much sooner.
For Nigerian businesses and entrepreneurs in rural areas, this investment means faster access to reliable electricity that can support commercial activities and job creation, while reducing the upfront costs of distributed renewable energy projects through quicker equipment delivery and bulk purchasing economies.