Sterling Bank has secured a $30m credit facility from Proparco, the private sector financing arm of the French Development Agency Group, to fund renewable energy projects and support small and medium-sized enterprises in Nigeria’s agricultural value chain.
The facility is expected to improve access to clean energy financing, strengthen local businesses and boost agricultural production by expanding access to credit.
The agreement was signed recently at Sterling Bank’s head office in Lagos by the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abubakar Suleiman, and the Chief Executive Officer of the French Development Agency, Christophe Lecourtier.
Suleiman said the country’s electricity challenges increasingly require investment in decentralised energy solutions, rather than relying solely on expanding the national grid.
“We have long treated Nigeria’s power problem as a generation problem waiting for the grid to solve it. Increasingly, it is a financing problem with a distributed solution,” he said.
Under the agreement, 80 per cent of the facility, amounting to $24m, will be channelled into renewable energy projects, while the remaining $6m will be used to provide financing for small and medium-sized enterprises across agricultural value chains.
The renewable energy component will prioritise decentralised power solutions, particularly off-grid solar systems, to improve access to reliable electricity for households and businesses.
The partnership comes against the backdrop of persistent electricity access challenges in Nigeria, where more than one-third of the population remains without access to electricity.
The financing is expected to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, stimulate economic activities and strengthen communities’ resilience to climate-related challenges.
The agreement marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between the two institutions and aligns with Sterling Bank’s HEART strategy, which focuses on financing health, education, agriculture, renewable energy and transportation.
Suleiman said many households and businesses already spent significant amounts on generator-powered electricity but lacked the financing needed to transition to cleaner energy alternatives.
He added that the facility would also help address funding gaps in the agricultural sector, where limited access to credit across the value chain continued to constrain businesses.
Speaking on the partnership, Lecourtier said the financing would expand access to clean energy, strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises and encourage investment in local agricultural value chains.
He added that the arrangement would promote joint projects between Nigerian and French companies, while supporting economic growth and job creation.
The partnership also aligns with Sterling Bank’s efforts to promote women’s economic inclusion through programmes designed to equip female entrepreneurs with relevant skills and support the expansion of their businesses.
