By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa
Nigeria has secured about $83 million in International Finance Corporation-backed financing to expand off-grid electricity access to rural and underserved communities across the country, in what authorities describe as a major step toward closing the nation’s power gap.
The Head of the Nigeria Electrification Programme and DARES Project Lead, Nigeria Electrification Programme, Olufemi Akinyelure, disclosed this in a statement released on Friday.
It said the funding was mobilised under the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up programme.
According to the statement, the financing agreement was signed on the sidelines of the World Bank Group and IMF Spring Meetings 2026 in Washington, D.C., and will support private developers deploying mini-grids and solar home systems in communities without reliable electricity.
The programme noted that the initiative marks a shift from pilot projects to large-scale deployment of off-grid renewable energy solutions aimed at improving electricity access for millions of Nigerians.
“This marks a shift from programme design to execution at scale. Distributed renewable energy in Nigeria is now a bankable market, not a pilot segment,” Akinyelure said.
