The International Finance Corporation in partnership with the Canadian Government, has invested $5 million in Husk Nigeria to expand solar hybrid mini-grids in underserved communities across Northern Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a statement released on Thursday.
The funding aims to tackle Nigeria’s persistent energy poverty by providing affordable, reliable, and renewable electricity to off-grid areas.
Husk Nigeria plans to develop and operate up to 108 mini-grid sites, potentially connecting 115,000 people and businesses through approximately 28,750 new electricity connections.
This investment marks the first under the IFC’s Distributed Access through Renewable you Energy Scale-up Platform, a $200 million debt facility launched in November 2024 to drive private-sector solutions for electricity access in West and Central Africa.
The platform complements the World Bank’s $750 million Nigeria DARES Project, initiated in December 2023 and implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency.
Together, these initiatives target providing new or improved energy access to over 17.5 million Nigerians through decentralized renewable energy solutions.
Regional Vice President for Africa at the IFC, Ethiopis Tafara, described the development as “an innovative approach to tackling one of Africa’s most pressing challenges—energy access.
Tafara noted further, “By partnering with Husk, a leading renewable energy developer globally, through the first project under the DARES Platform, we are not only addressing the immediate electricity needs of underserved communities in Nigeria but also laying the foundation for a scalable model that can be replicated across the continent.”
Co-founder and CEO of Husk, Manoj Sinha, said, “ This innovative debt facility is exactly what the minigrid industry needs to scale — blended, long-term and affordable capital.”
Country Director, Husk Nigeria, Olu Aruike, noted, “Adding 108 new communities to our minigrid portfolio with IFC support is an important step toward our goal of deploying at least 250MW of decentralised renewable energy projects in Nigeria.”
The DARES Platform is a key component of the World Bank’s broader support for Nigeria’s power sector.
