United States-based solar company Sun King has secured an $80 million (N128 billion) loan to extend electricity to millions of Nigerians still living without power.
The deal, finalised with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Stanbic IBTC Bank, is the largest energy access facility ever arranged in local currency in West Africa.
This development is particularly important because the funds are denominated in naira, not dollars. In a market repeatedly battered by currency volatility, this matters. “What’s really exciting about this is that it’s a local-currency facility. It eliminates foreign-exchange risk and allows us to offer more affordable financing to our customers,” said Anish Thakkar, Sun King’s co-founder.
Sun King plans to use the funds to provide solar electricity systems to an additional four million households across Nigeria within the next five years. That would more than double its existing footprint, which currently covers two million homes.
The solar kits come with small panels and rechargeable batteries, and users pay around $0.21 (N320) daily over the course of a year. For many rural communities, it’s a significant yet manageable cost in exchange for the stability and dignity of having constant power. The hardware is designed to last up to a decade.
We can’t ignore the scale of Nigeria’s electricity problem. Around 90 million people in the country remain disconnected from the grid. That’s nearly half the population. Diesel generators and candlelight remain their fallback options.
This new loan is part of an international initiative to bridge Africa’s energy gap. It feeds into Mission 300, a joint initiative by the World Bank and African Development Bank that aims to connect 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa to electricity by 2030.
The project expects both public and private investments to pour into scalable, cost-effective energy solutions.
In 2021, Sun King, previously known as Greenlight Planet, pulled off a similar $75 million deal in Kenya focused on off-grid energy expansion.
For Nigeria, international support for electrification continues to build. Last December, the World Bank helped arrange a separate $750 million loan targeting renewable and off-grid energy.
That deal is expected to unlock over $1 billion in private capital and deliver electricity to 17.5 million Nigerians.
