BII Lends Okra Solar $7M for 150,000 Nigerian Connections

British International Investment (BII), the UK government's development finance institution, has committed a $7 million debt facility to Okra Solar, a company that builds solar "mesh grids" for villages the national grid does not reach. The deal, about ₦9.4 billion at the official rate, is aimed squarely at rural Nigeria.

According to BII's project summary, as reported by Ecofin Agency, the facility will pay for equipment for about 150,000 new electricity connections, which could serve as many as 750,000 people. Okra currently serves more than 13,000 households with over 2.3 MW of installed capacity, so the target is more than ten times its present size. The deal was announced at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum in Kigali, Launch Base Africa reports.

Why the money is debt, not equity

The facility is working capital. Until now, chief executive Afnan Hannan said, Okra ordered equipment only after a project agreement was signed, usually in batches of a few thousand units. With BII's money it can buy batteries, solar panels and long-lead components in advance and in bulk. Hannan said equipment can now reach Nigeria in less than a third of the time it used to take, so communities get power sooner.

Geoffrey Manley, who heads infrastructure and climate debt for Africa and South Asia at BII, said the right kind of finance matters as much as the technology for energy companies like Okra, according to Innovation Village.

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How a mesh grid works

A mesh grid links neighbouring homes and shops with low-voltage DC cables and smart controllers, which Okra calls Pods, so households can share surplus solar power without a central power house. Okra claims this cuts distribution costs by up to 90 percent against a conventional mini-grid and puts the average shipped cost of a Nigerian connection at around $400, Launch Base Africa reports.

Independent evidence is more measured. A 2025 CrossBoundary study cited by Launch Base Africa found full mesh-grid deployments were 41 percent cheaper than conventional mini-grids, with reliability above 96 percent, but also found that extending an existing mini-grid with mesh technology cost more. Mesh grids suit small, scattered settlements rather than every site.

Nigeria is the off-grid market to win

Somewhere between 87 million and 90 million Nigerians lack reliable electricity, by the estimates the reports cite. Nigeria attracted $114 million of the $315 million invested globally in off-grid solar companies in 2025, according to GOGLA's investment data report. The government's $750 million DARES programme, run by the Rural Electrification Agency with World Bank support, aims to connect 3.2 million households and is the first government grant scheme to include mesh grids explicitly.