African Startups are Leveraging the World’s Largest Solar Reserve

It is estimated that Africa produces 60,000,000 TWh/year, which accounts for roughly 40% of the world’s total, making it the largest solar power reserve on the planet.

According to research by business consultancy, Kleos Advisory, over 600 million people in Africa – one in every two, still lack access to the power grid, creating a $24 billion market for off-grid solar systems every year.

The report adds that over 5 million pay-as-you-go residential solar systems have been sold on the continent in the past four years.

In 2019, entrepreneurs Adeobola Sanni and Olusola Owoyemi launched Infibranches in Nigeria, a platform that helps solar energy providers manage their operations and receive payments. Its flagship products, OmniBranches and Green Energy Plug are two tools that assist firms in managing extensive solar home and mini-grid distribution networks.

Today Infibranches makes headlines in the Africa solar power ecosystem with its $2 million funding from All On,  an impact investment firm backed by oil giant, Shell.

The $2 million investment will be used to support the company’s next stage of growth by financing inventory, agent acquisition, product and technology development, as well as providing working capital for Infibranches’ move towards distributing solar home systems for households and businesses.

“Through this investment, Infibranches plans to speed up customer acquisition in its current markets. This will also improve existing products like Omnibranches, which has served over a million customers and introduce new products and services to address energy distribution issues”, said chief executive officer (CEO) Olusola Owoyemi.

All On’s CEO, Dr. Wiebe Boer, praised Infibrances for its unique business model, which addresses the payment and collection issues that solar system distributors and mini-grid providers confront across Nigeria.

“This partnership merges fintech and renewables in a way we haven’t seen in Nigeria before and will enable tens of thousands of new electricity connections,” he said.

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