Nigeria’s plan to connect 17.5m of its citizens to electricity is moving from ambition to execution, as the first wave of companies securing financing under the World Bank’s Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme emerges.

The DARES initiative, one of Africa’s largest distributed energy projects, aims to tackle Nigeria’s significant energy deficit, where an estimated 90m people live without a reliable power supply. The programme’s core strategy relies on deploying up to 1,500 solar mini-grids and 1.5m standalone solar home systems.

To fuel this, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, has established a $200m debt platform. This facility provides crucial financing to the renewable energy companies (RESCOs) selected to build and operate the infrastructure.

Launch Base Africa has analysed the programme’s latest disclosures to identify the initial recipients.

The First Cohort: A Mix of Scale and Specialisation

The IFC is backing a diverse group of developers, indicating a strategy that blends support for experienced operators with backing for new models entering the sector.

• StarTimes Smart Energy: A subsidiary of the Chinese media giant StarTimes, this company is leveraging its existing distribution network to expand into energy. It has secured a $20m debt facility from the IFC ($10m commercial loan, $10m concessional loan) to deploy 95 mini-grids (13.1MW) and 200,000 solar home systems. The total project cost is estimated at $72.6m.
• Darway Coast Nigeria: An indigenous operator active since 2018, Darway Coast has already built 20 mini-grids under a previous government programme. The company, which is 90% owned by brothers Henry and Augustine Ureh, will receive a $20m IFC debt package ($10m commercial, $10m concessional) plus a further $5m from NorFund, the Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries. The capital will fund the construction of 63 new mini-grid sites totalling 24MW, with a project cost of $82.3m.
• Prado Power: Established in 2014, Prado Power focuses on integrating energy access with agricultural productivity and women’s empowerment through partnerships with its affiliate, Farm Warehouse. It secured an $8m IFC facility ($4m commercial, $4m concessional) alongside $2m from NorFund. The funding will support the construction of 21 mini-grids (9.6MW).
• Husk Power Systems: In May 2025, the company announced it had obtained $5m from the IFC, with support from the Canadian government, to develop up to 108 solar hybrid mini-grid sites, primarily in Northern Nigeria.

How the Money Works: De-risking with ‘Blended Finance’

A key feature of the IFC’s funding is its “blended finance” structure, designed to make high-risk projects in emerging markets attractive to private capital.

Each financing package is split into two parts: a standard commercial loan (an “IFC A loan”) and a “subordinated concessional loan.” This second, cheaper loan comes from special development funds, like the IDA Private Sector Window.

By offering a portion of the capital at below-market rates, the IFC lowers the overall cost of borrowing and enhances the project’s risk-return profile. Without this subsidised tranche, the IFC notes that scaling a mini-grid business in Nigeria would be challenging due to high perceived risks and a limited commercial track record.

The level of subsidy is calculated to be approximately 3% of the total project cost for both Darway Coast and StarTimes. This structured financing is critical for mobilising capital from other development finance institutions like NorFund and, eventually, commercial banks.

The Digital Backbone

While developers build the physical infrastructure, the entire DARES programme is being managed on a single digital platform provided by Odyssey Energy Solutions.

Last month, Odyssey secured a $7.5m funding facility from British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, specifically to accelerate the rollout of mini-grids under DARES.

Odyssey’s platform serves as the programme’s operating system. Developers use it to submit proposals and manage their projects. Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA), which manages the $200M DARES Fund, uses the platform to evaluate applications, monitor project performance in real-time, and disburse the performance-based grants, ensuring transparency and efficiency across the complex, nationwide initiative.

The Bottom Line

The coordinated rollout of financing to developers and the technology platform provider signals a mature, multi-faceted approach to tackling energy poverty. By combining World Bank grants, de-risked debt from development finance institutions, and a centralised digital management system, the DARES programme offers a potential blueprint for public-private partnerships aiming to solve infrastructure challenges at scale in other emerging markets. The key test will now be execution on the ground as these newly-funded companies begin to build.