Local innovation driving off-grid power revolution — RenCom Managing Partner, Opadiran

As Africa races toward the World Bank’s Mission 300 goal of connecting 300 million people to electricity by 2030, Nigerian renewable-energy firm RenCom is quietly redefining what sustainable electrification means — one community at a time. In this interview with LAOLU AFOLABI, RenCom’s Managing Partner, Olamide Opadiran, discusses the company’s “community-first engineering” model, which links energy access directly to livelihoods by powering micro-enterprises, agro-processing hubs, and women-led ventures before extending to households

The World Bank’s Mission 300 aims to connect 300 million Africans to power by 2030. How does RenCom’s model uniquely translate that big-picture goal into a community-level reality, and what lessons should global policymakers take from your approach?

The World Bank’s Mission 300 initiative is a much-needed intervention, considering Nigeria’s energy poverty scale, where over 85 million people still lack access to reliable electricity. For us at Rencom, this is not just another development framework, but a measurable target that we are deeply committed to contributing to.

Our philosophy is simple: we start with productive use of energy (PUE), not just connections. This is because PUE leads to a greater economic impact that flows down the value chain, improving livelihoods significantly. Our unique approach is that when we enter a community, our researchers, engineers, and community engagement team first study the economic rhythm, the real, daily energy demand that sustains local livelihoods. We identify existing or potential micro-enterprises, and explore options to sustainably energise their operations. This could be through solarised PUE equipment like cold storage, agro-processing mills, water pumping, phone-charging hubs, and design energy systems around those revenue anchors. Once that foundation is viable, we extend access to households and social infrastructure like schools and health care centres.

This “community-first engineering” model ensures long-term sustainability because it’s economically rooted in local demand, not donor timelines. This also mirrors the results-based, private-sector-led approach used by REA under the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) and aligns with the Decentralised Renewable Energy Strategy (DARES) mandate to provide 17.5 million Nigerians with access to clean electricity by 2030.

The real mindset shift that must happen is for both policymakers and funders to stop viewing communities as passive recipients of infrastructure. When people are actively involved in co-designing the energy systems that power their farms, workshops, and schools, they develop a sense of ownership. They maintain those systems, expand them, and weave them into their local economies. That’s what ensures long-term sustainability, and what makes electrification truly transformative, not merely a statistic.

Africa’s renewable energy landscape is shifting fast, with major investments from China, the EU, and new private capital. How do you see local innovation balancing or competing with this influx of foreign-led projects?

First, let’s set the context. Africa attracted about $40bn in renewable energy investment in 2024, less than three per cent of global clean energy spending, according to the IEA. That figure says it all. Even in the global energy transition, the continent remains on the margins.

At RenCom, we view foreign investment not as competition, but as complementary to local efforts. Large-scale infrastructure financing can catalyse sector growth, drive scale, and unlock affordable capital. But long-term sustainability and real impact depend on local innovation and context. Indigenous firms bring invaluable customer insight, operational resilience, and the cultural understanding needed to design solutions that reflect how people actually live and work.

The optimal approach is clear: leverage global capital for infrastructure, while empowering local developers to lead deployment, operations, and productive-use integration. Achieving this balance requires deliberate procurement frameworks that prioritise local O&M capacity, enforce technology transfer, and promote blended finance tied to measurable outcomes.

A promising example is the Zafiri Fund, co-developed by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank Group, which aims to mobilise $1bn for decentralised renewable energy projects under the Mission 300 initiative. It’s a step in the right direction, but we need more financing vehicles that position local developers as lead partners, not subcontractors.

I’m also encouraged by Nigeria’s policy momentum. At REA’s  inaugural Nigeria Renewable Energy Innovation Forum (NREIF 2025), the theme was  “Implementing the Nigeria First Policy.” This framework emphasises local content, indigenous manufacturing, and the development of intellectual property across the renewable energy value chain. It’s more than symbolic; it’s a genuine game-changer, and the conversations we had at NREIF reinforced that.

There’s growing excitement around decentralised energy systems and “productive use” models—solar mini-grids, battery swapping, microfinancing for small businesses. What technologies or business innovations are you betting on to make clean energy stick at the village level?

The real innovation isn’t just in technology but in business models. Instead of focusing on selling systems, we focus on selling outcomes. A market woman, for example, doesn’t want to buy a battery; she wants her fish to stay fresh and her profits secure. That’s the mindset behind how we design our solutions. To your question, I would highlight three approaches that are transforming how we make clean energy stick at the community level. First, shared asset models, things like community cold rooms, battery-swap hubs, and agro-processing clusters where small businesses share infrastructure, reduce costs, and create steady, collective income.

Second, modular solar-plus-battery mini-grids built for productive use like cold storage, milling, charging, irrigation, and designed for staged expansion under the NERC Mini-Grid Regulation. This framework allows communities and developers like us to start small, prove viability, and scale quickly without waiting for national grid extension.

Third, Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) and embedded microfinance models that enable households and small businesses to grow their consumption as their income grows. These are supported under the Nigeria Electrification Project and the Decentralised Renewable Energy Subcomponent of the World Bank’s Distributed Access Programme, both of which aim to reach over 17.5 million Nigerians with clean, affordable power.

At Rencom, we call our approach the “Rencom algorithm.” We design systems not just around current energy demand, but around economic potential, the hidden productivity that reliable power can unlock. Because when energy powers growth, not just lightbulbs, it becomes truly sustainable.

With the recent push for AI and IoT in energy monitoring (for example, startups using predictive analytics to cut downtime), how is RenCom leveraging digital tools to improve reliability and affordability?

I’ll tell you what excites me and what worries me about the digital revolution in African energy. The exciting part is how data and digital tools are making reliability measurable and predictable. At Rencom, we use low-bandwidth IoT telemetry to monitor battery and inverter health in real time, perform remote meter readings for revenue assurance, and run predictive maintenance models that flag components before they fail. These interventions have reduced our operating expenses by nearly 40 per cent, and more importantly, improved uptime. That’s the invisible kind of innovation I believe in ‑ technology that the user doesn’t see, but feels through consistent power and fair pricing.

At the financing level, this same telemetry-backed revenue data allows us to unlock new forms of receivable-based financing, since lenders can underwrite based on verifiable cash flows rather than projections.

Now, here’s my worry: are we building digital dependencies we can’t sustain? The Odyssey platform being selected as the digital infrastructure for Nigeria is a great step. It shows the sector is finally serious about data. But we still need solutions that work in areas with 2G coverage and for operators with basic phone literacy. Otherwise, we risk designing systems that only work for cities, not for villages.

Our real innovation at Rencom is a system that learns the rhythm of a community’s energy use and adjusts supply dynamically. It’s about teaching the grid to understand people, not the other way round. That’s how we see technology: it should quietly make life easier, not more complicated. If it’s invisible to the user but transformative in its impact, then it’s doing its job.

Access to electricity is often just the beginning; economic empowerment and green jobs are the real multipliers. Can you share examples of how RenCom’s projects have tangibly transformed livelihoods, especially for youth and women?

In our model at Rencom, the most consistent and lasting impacts come from productive-use enterprises, those small but powerful businesses that turn electricity into opportunity.

Across rural Nigeria, we’ve witnessed the transformative power of energy access firsthand: refrigeration units in markets and clinics reducing food waste while enabling women-led micro-enterprises; agro-processing hubs converting perishable produce locally and creating youth employment; and phone charging and repair kiosks evolving into micro-franchises, offering young school leavers viable alternative income opportunities beyond formal employment that is not forthcoming.

Let me tell you about a Mama Kudus in Kwara State. Eighteen months ago, she was manually grinding cassava for six hours every day. Today, thanks to a solar-powered agro-processing centre, she completes the same work in 45 minutes and supplies garri to three states. Her income has increased by over 200 per cent, and she now employs other young women. That is what transformation looks like.

Programmes like DARES recognise this potential. DARES specifically targets over 525,000 female-headed households across Nigeria, promoting gender equity through access to clean energy.

 But for us, equity isn’t just about access; it’s about agency. Here, we aim to have at least 40 per cent of our technical operators as women, and not in mere token roles, but real hands-on positions. Many of our female technicians are outperforming expectations because they understand that when power fails, it’s women’s businesses that feel it first.

For youth, we hope to create entirely new career paths through on-site technical apprenticeships and green enterprise training. We measure success not in megawatts installed, but in livelihoods transformed. With Nigeria’s electricity demand projected to grow by 5.3 per cent annually between 2025 and 2027, these communities aren’t just catching up; they’re positioning themselves to power Nigeria’s economic future.

There’s a growing critique that renewable projects in Africa risk being “green islands in a brown ocean,” that is, sustainable but small-scale, disconnected from systemic change. How do you ensure RenCom’s work leads to long-term infrastructure and not just pilot projects?

This critique hits home because we have seen some “pilot projects” become expensive monuments to good intentions. The problem isn’t the technology, it’s the mindset. We don’t build projects; we build ecosystems.

Our design philosophy is grounded in interoperability and transition. Every mini grid we deploy is built to national technical and commercial standards that allow for eventual grid interconnection or aggregation into larger distribution systems in line with NERC’s Mini-Grid Regulation. From day one, our systems are grid-ready, so when the national grid eventually extends to these communities, our mini-grids can feed into it, becoming distributed generation assets, not stranded investments.

We support the stance on local operations and maintenance (O&M) contracts, building training pipelines for young technicians, and implementing transparent revenue tracking systems so projects can survive beyond donor cycles. Sustainability, for us, means designing projects that thrive without continuous grant dependency.

With the Rural Electrification Agency planning over 400 mini-grids and 50 interconnected metro grids by 2030, there’s a clear national commitment to decentralised energy growth. The new Mini-Grid and Distributed Generation frameworks, supported under the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy, create the policy scaffolding we need to scale responsibly.

We’re aligning with that vision, expanding not through isolated pilots, but through scalable, interconnected, community-owned power systems that grow with Nigeria’s grid. Because in the end, the goal isn’t just electrification, it’s economic transformation powered by renewable energy.

The conversation around “blended finance” and climate funds is heating up, with African leaders pushing for fairer financing. What’s your take on the current investment climate for local renewable ventures?

Capital appetite is rising, public and private flows into African clean energy have expanded materially, but risk pricing and project preparation remain stubborn bottlenecks.

In Nigeria, achieving Mission 300 as mentioned earlier will require about $32.8bn, with roughly $15.5bn expected from private investors. Yet today, local developers can’t access even one per cent of the climate finance theoretically available. The pipeline exists; what’s missing is flexible, risk-tolerant capital that matches our context.

That’s why I’m cautiously optimistic about recent shifts. Most funds offer loans, but what we need is patient capital that recognises our J-curve is longer because we’re building markets, not just projects. You might ask, what would truly transform the landscape? First, local currency financing. Exchange rate volatility has derailed more projects than technical failures ever could. The Central Bank’s Solar Intervention Facility was a commendable start, but what we need now is a scaled, structured local-currency window dedicated to mini-grid and productive-use projects.

Second, enhanced due diligence. Start with light-touch screening; only shortlisted projects should undergo full documentation. That way, we lower transaction costs for smaller developers.

Third, embedded technical assistance. The most effective programme embeds an advisor directly within teams, helping companies strengthen financial systems while deploying capital and hands-on support that turns projects into bankable portfolios.

Blended finance works when it blends not just different forms of capital but different forms of knowledge. Pair our local market intelligence with DFI’s institutional capital and philanthropic first-loss coverage, and you create a financing ecosystem that can scale distributed renewable energy across Nigeria.

Ultimately, it’s not about how much capital is announced, it’s about how much actually flows to the communities building this new energy economy.

How do you navigate the tension between impact-driven goals and the commercial realities of scaling in challenging markets? What have you learned about investor expectations versus community needs?

Over time, we’ve learned to speak two languages fluently: the language of investors and the language of communities. These timelines rarely align until you reframe the conversation.

To investors, we don’t just sell social impact; we sell risk mitigation. Our projects are designed with transparent performance metrics, diversified revenue streams, and data-backed repayment models. A mini grid built around productive-use customers like agro-processors, cold storage operators, etc, creates predictable cash flows and lowers default risk. For us, gender inclusion isn’t just a moral choice; women operators and entrepreneurs have higher repayment rates and better maintenance discipline. These are metrics investors understand.

To communities, we don’t promise charity; we offer partnership. Electricity will transform your life, yes, but sustainability depends on affordability, flexibility, and consistency in payment. We structure tariffs to reflect local realities: small daily/weekly payments instead of large monthly bills, community-based agents for collections, and culturally aligned operating contracts. This honesty builds trust and ownership.

The biggest lesson? Never compromise on either goal. The moment you prioritise returns over community needs, you lose trust; the moment you ignore commercial sustainability, you build dependency. The sweet spot is narrow but real, and that’s where impact meets scale.

At Rencom, we stand to translate impact into cash flows. Investors get predictable returns and verifiable risk protection; communities get reliable, affordable power. This is the bridge model promoted under the Mission 300 framework, where inclusive, performance-driven electrification replaces donor dependency with durable local growth.

Many young African founders feel locked out of the global climate conversation, tokenised rather than empowered. What would you say needs to change in how global initiatives engage local entrepreneurs?

The recent Nigerian Renewable Energy Innovation Forum brought home a stark fact: Africa attracts less than three per cent of global energy investment despite holding roughly 60 per cent of the world’s best solar resources. That’s not a resource problem, it’s a power problem, and I don’t mean just electricity. It’s about who gets heard, who gets capital, and who sets the rules.

There are three shifts we urgently need so African innovators are included as equals in the conversation. First, there needs to be a move from token representation to equity in governance. Local founders should not be decorative panellists; they should sit on investment and advisory committees with real voting power and budgetary influence. Too many decisions about African markets are still made in conference rooms thousands of miles away.

Second, simplify access to finance. Application processes must be streamlined and lead times shortened. Many capable teams lose momentum waiting six months for grant decisions. More funds should treat capacity building, project preparation, legal support, and financial modelling as a grantable, budgeted line item so founders can focus on delivery, not paperwork. The sector needs quicker, lighter touch first-round screening to surface high-potential local teams.

Third, recognise grassroots innovation on its own terms. While Silicon Valley celebrates apps that deliver food faster, African innovators are solving harder problems, payment systems that work without a steady internet, energy systems that survive seasonal floods, and business models that turn subsistence farmers into commercial producers. Those solutions deserve both attention and long-term, patient capital.

Young African founders need allies, not saviours. What this means is quota seats at decision tables, faster small grant disbursement, and funding programmes that include technical assistance. And next time there’s a big climate summit, let’s make sure speakers include women, youth, and significant representation from the Global South. That’s when the conversation will shift from charity to genuine partnership.

The Nigerian energy sector has seen turbulence, from subsidy removals to off-grid regulation reforms. How have these shifts shaped your operational strategy and the wider opportunity for renewables in Nigeria?

I will say turbulence creates the biggest opportunities for those who can navigate it. Regulatory clarity has improved in important ways. At the same time, macro shocks, subsidy policy shifts, and currency volatility raise working-capital pressure and change tariff dynamics. Companies have responded practically, such as increasing local-currency revenue streams where possible, front-loading productive use customers who can pay commercial rates, and structured contracts with input-price hedges and escalation clauses to protect returns. These operational choices allow resilience when policy or markets swing, but the key is being operationally nimble, moving fast, locking in community anchors, and layering finance so projects graduate from grant to debt to equity rather than languish as pilots.

Our job at Rencom is to turn that turbulence into a pathway for building bankable, community-rooted projects that survive shocks and fuel long-term economic growth.

If Mission 300 succeeds, or even achieves half its goals, it could redefine Africa’s development trajectory. What does success look like to you by 2030, and how do you see companies like RenCom contributing to that vision?

Success in 2030, to me, won’t just look like 300 million people with light bulbs; it’ll look like 300 million people with possibilities. I envision Nigerian factories competing globally because they finally have reliable power; youth in Kano coding for companies in California because they’re connected; farmers in Jos exporting processed foods because they now have cold chains.

Real progress means reliable electricity for rural clinics and schools, thriving micro and small manufacturing hubs in villages, thousands of local green jobs, and a smarter, more resilient grid that integrates distributed renewable assets instead of working against them.

For RenCom, our role is to be the integrator, turning policy and capital into dependable local systems. We build, operate, train, and hand over commercially sustainable models. If the World Bank’s Mission 300 succeeds, it must be measured not just in the number of connections but in increased incomes, reduced post-harvest loss, higher clinic uptime, and career pathways for young technicians.

Companies like ours should be the bridge between global ambitions and local realities. Success, for me, is when we no longer call it “rural electrification” because there’s no “rural” anymore, just connected, productive communities powering a trillion-dollar Nigerian economy.

Many in your generation see climate work as more than a job; it’s a form of nation-building and moral duty. What does leading a renewable-energy company in Nigeria mean to you personally, and how do you keep that purpose alive amid the challenges?

Leading RenCom is both a practical mission and a moral commitment. Practically, we must deliver reliable power services and generate consistent returns so we can scale sustainably. Morally, every light that stays on in a rural clinic, every cold room that saves produce from spoilage, and every apprentice who learns to maintain solar systems is tangible nation-building.

This work isn’t just a job, it’s redemption. A young girl studying under solar light instead of kerosene is rewriting our national story. The small wins keep me grounded. When a nurse says, “We no longer close at night,” it reminds me why the long work matters. This isn’t about kilowatts; it’s about justice.

The Energy Transition Plan, the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy, and initiatives like the Nigeria Electrification Project are helping bridge that gap. They’re translating climate ambition into local action, and we’re proud to be part of that bridge.

The good news is that policies like the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan and others are creating the right enabling environment. They’re helping companies like ours turn climate finance into real community transformation, powering schools, clinics, and local enterprises. Nigeria doesn’t need sympathy; it needs systems. Africa doesn’t need aid; it needs agency. At RenCom, we’re not just building a company; we are helping build a country our children will be proud to inherit. That’s not a burden, it’s a blessing.