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Okra Solar, a Nigerian provider of mesh-grid technology for off-grid communities, has secured a $7 million debt facility from British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.
The investment will help accelerate access to reliable and clean electricity, primarily in Nigeria. In September 2023, the company announced that it had closed its Series A funding round, raising more than $12 million in fresh financing. This included $7.85 million in equity led by At One Ventures, with participation from FMO, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, Autodesk Foundation and King Philanthropies. The debt financing was provided by EDFi.
Geoffrey Manley, Director and Head of Infrastructure and Climate Debt, Africa and South Asia at BII, said, “For innovative energy companies such as Okra, access to the right type of finance can be just as important as the technology itself. Our flexible facility will enable Okra to procure critical components earlier and at greater scale, reducing costs and shortening delivery times. We believe this will help demonstrate the commercial viability of mesh-grids and establish the model as an increasingly important part of Africa’s distributed renewable energy market.”
Founded in 2016 by Afnan Hannan (CEO) and Damian Veling (CTO), Okra Solar is a B2B technology provider that enables energy developers to energise off-grid communities profitably and at scale. The company says its mesh-grid technology bridges the gap between low-power solar home systems and high-cost centralised mini-grids.
According to BII, Nigeria has one of the world’s largest electricity access deficits, with an estimated 90 million people lacking reliable and affordable power. Many live in small, dispersed communities where conventional mini-grids are costly to deploy, while solar home systems may not provide enough power for businesses and other productive uses.
BII claims that mesh grids are designed to help address this gap. They combine solar generation, battery storage, and smart controls, allowing neighbouring homes and businesses to share electricity cost-efficiently.
Okra Solar claims that, compared to traditional forms of grid extension, its mesh-grids can save distribution costs by up to 60% and be 70% faster to deploy. The company uses a Hub and Spoke “cluster” model, where Hubs (Okra Sprout) are rugged, pre-wired enclosures designed for productive-use users. They provide up to 3.6kW AC output to power businesses like mills, stores, and freezers. Spokes (Okra Leaf) are ultra-low-CAPEX smart meters that let developers profitably reach the lowest-consuming households. It provides 150W AC power for essential needs like lights, fans, and phone charging.
OkraNet is a wireless mesh communications solution built on the Wi-SUN protocol. It lets hundreds of homes connect to the cloud through a single Beacon gateway, cutting data costs by up to 90%. And Okra Harvest is a SaaS platform that provides mission control for mesh-grid projects. It features automated issue detection, remote billing, appliance financing and more to maximise project ROI.
Hannan, CEO, Okra Solar, said, “Every month a project is delayed is another month a community goes without power. Until now we would only order components once a transaction had closed, in batches of a few thousand units. With BII’s facility we are procuring long lead time components, batteries, and solar PV equipment upfront and in volume, reducing costs and having stock ready when a developer signs. Equipment reaches Nigeria in less than one-third of the time – getting the lights on sooner.”
The BII financing will enable Okra to procure equipment for approximately 150k new connections, with the potential to provide electricity to 750k people in rural Nigeria for the first time.
With Okra’s current installed base of more than 13,000 households and over 2.3MW of installed capacity, the facility will enable the company to achieve more than 10 times its current connections.
This investment provides access to flexible working capital to procure equipment. This facility enables Okra to purchase manufacturing inputs upfront and in greater volumes, thereby helping to reduce equipment costs and shorten delivery times to Nigeria from four months to approximately two months.
The British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Jonny Baxter, said, “Reliable electricity is fundamental to economic growth, job creation and improved livelihoods. Yet millions of Nigerians still lack access to dependable power. Through British International Investment, the UK is supporting innovative Nigerian solutions that can help close this gap.
“Not only is this about expanding access to power, but it is also about clean power. More reliable power creates opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs, which generates jobs and drives inclusive economic growth. And clean power means less pollution. This investment reflects the strength of the UK-Nigeria partnership and our shared commitment to sustainable development, energy security and long-term prosperity.”
This investment comes amid Nigeria’s expansion of distributed renewable energy through initiatives including the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme, implemented by Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency with World Bank support. Mesh-grids are eligible under the programme, which provides results-based financing to support new electricity connections.
