BII Provides USD 7 Million to Okra Solar

British International Investment is providing a USD 7 million financing package for Okra Solar to pre-purchase long-lead hardware and accelerate deployments by third-party developers.

The facility is structured as debt and will supply working capital for batteries, solar equipment and other components before individual transactions close, a gap Okra says has slowed installations. Okra said the approach should lower procurement costs, cut delivery times and support about 150,000 new connections, potentially reaching 750,000 people.

Okra, founded in 2016 by Afnan Hannan and Damian Veling, sells hardware to energy developers rather than directly to households. The company reports more than 13,000 connected households and over 2.3 MW of installed capacity; its Okra Sprout hub delivers up to 3.6 kW of AC output while Okra Leaf targets lighter household demand. The BII facility follows Okra's September 2023 Series A, which raised more than USD 12 million through a mix of equity and debt, with USD 7.85 million in equity led by At One Ventures and participation from FMO, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, Autodesk Foundation and King Philanthropies, while EDFi provided debt.

Okra describes its mesh-grid architecture as a decentralised network that pairs solar generation, battery storage and software controls so neighbouring homes and businesses can share power. The company estimates the model can cut distribution costs by as much as 60 percent and speed deployment by up to 70 percent compared with conventional grid extension, and it notes actual savings will vary by geography, community size, demand and design.

BII estimates about 90 million Nigerians lack reliable, affordable electricity, many in dispersed rural settlements where grid extension is costly. The Rural Electrification Agency, backed by the World Bank, runs the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up programme, or DARES, which offers results-based financing for new connections and recognizes mesh-grid systems; Okra has not named any DARES-funded projects tied to the BII facility. BII and UK diplomatic officials have highlighted access to suitable finance for energy technology companies as central to scaling distributed renewables and supporting business growth.