Nigeria’s deployment of solar-powered mesh-grids is attracting interest from other African countries, with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) reporting more than 111,000 connections already approved and others awaiting approval under the programme.
Abba Abubakar Aliyu, managing director of REA, presented Nigeria’s experience at a roundtable hosted by Okra Solar and GET.invest during the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo in Kigali, Rwanda, where energy leaders convened to discuss how mesh-grids can accelerate electricity access in underserved communities across Africa.
“Mesh-grids are helping us forge ahead by giving us another option for communities where other solutions may be difficult or costly to deploy,” Aliyu said.
Mesh-grids combine solar generation, battery storage and smart controls to connect homes and businesses through a shared electricity network. The technology provides an alternative for small, dispersed communities where conventional mini-grids can be expensive to deploy and standalone solar systems may not supply enough electricity for productive activities.
Aliyu invited policymakers and energy professionals to visit Nigerian communities using the technology and engage with REA’s technical teams to understand its implementation.
Similarly, Afnan Hannan, chief executive officer of Okra Solar, said the success of Mission 300 would depend on how quickly electricity could reach remote communities.
“Mission 300’s success will be determined by how fast we can energise the hardest-to-reach communities,” Hannan said, adding that mesh-grids could provide electricity at lower cost while supporting businesses beyond basic household lighting.
Nigeria is the first country to establish a national funding programme that recognises mesh-grids as a distinct electricity access technology, offering developers a $300 results-based grant per connection, according to the agency.
The funding model is part of efforts to reduce the cost of extending electricity to remote communities, where conventional infrastructure is often difficult and expensive to build.
Mesh-grids are expected to play a key role in the federal government’s $750 million Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme, which targets new or improved electricity access for 17.5 million Nigerians.
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The programme has reached 7.6 million people, with more than $582 million committed, according to Aliyu.
The agency approved 13,438 mesh-grid connections for grants in 2026, while another 98,000 connections are in the pipeline. Communities already connected through the technology report 97.7 percent power availability, while the top 10 percent of households consume more than 1,400 watt-hours daily.
This level of electricity consumption can support household appliances such as chest freezers, fans, and televisions, as well as small businesses that run sewing machines and other productive equipment.
More than 20 representatives from governments, the World Bank, funding institutions and project developers attended the roundtable, which also marked the launch of GET.invest’s policy brief, titled ‘Scaling the adoption of mesh-grids in sub-Saharan Africa.’
Participants called for developers to have the flexibility to select the most cost-effective technologies for delivering electricity access, while stressing the need to complement results-based grants with debt financing to help local energy companies fund project construction.
They also agreed to develop a policy playbook to guide African countries in establishing regulatory frameworks for mesh-grids.
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Feyishola Jaiyesimi is a writer and storyteller. She currently writes for the energy desk at BusinessDay with a focus on renewable energy and environmental issues. She began her journalism career as an agricultural reporter and now covers the energy sector, including oil, gas, electricity, environment, and renewables. She has been selected for professional training by the US Consulate, Lagos. She is a 2025 Dataphyte Biodiversity Reporting Fellow. Feyishola holds a bachelor’s degree in Zoology and Environmental Biology from Ekiti State University.
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