Scaling Local Minigrid Companies

Minigrids are a promising solution to address the energy access challenges faced by remote and underserved communities across Africa. These decentralised power systems offer a cost-effective and scalable approach to electrification, enabling economic growth, improving livelihoods, and supporting the global community to meet critical climate goals. However, the successful implementation of minigrid projects heavily relies on the sector reaching scale and sustainability. The minigrid sector in general is not scaling fast enough to achieve 2030 energy access targets, but research shows that local developers are not scaling as quickly as foreign developers in terms of number of sites deployed, share of installed capacity, and equity and debt raised. Developers have identified financing, specifically equity and debt, as the key issue that drives scaling disparity. International developers raise 8x more equity and debt funding compared to local developers, limiting scale. The session will explore the various interventions that can be implemented to scale local developers.