PIND continues to play a significant role in driving the market for low–carbon, low–cost solutions that offer high-quality energy access to coastal communities in the Niger Delta Region. This has led to more households and businesses accessing electricity, especially in communities without electricity, for years.
In Q4 2022, PIND partnered with ETIN Power Limited, a female-led business, to deploy community energy solutions across coastal communities in the Niger Delta. These include a 110kWp solar mini-grid at Ajakurama community, Ovia southwest LGA in Edo State. This coastal community would ordinarily be without electricity as they are not connected to the national grid.PIND’s support to ETIN Power included;
- Introducing them to the energy cabin model.
- Providing insight into PIND’s experience around powering coastal communities in the Niger Delta, and
- Facilitating a community energy demand assessment in the Ajakurama community.
Similarly, female-led businesses are a rarity in Nigeria’s renewable energy space, and PIND is committed to inspiring women to become mini-grid owners. Hence, this collaboration is an advancement of PIND’s efforts to have female power business owners represented within the spectrum of new power developers that have been midwifed by PIND.Women are considered bankable investors and usually have a higher credit repayment rate. PIND’s partnership with ETIN Power provided grant support towards establishing their business case. This further paved the way for the company to access an innovative equipment lease facility required to finance their project in Edo State.
In addition, ETIN power also benefited from PIND’s technical assistance facility, which includes business mentoring, advisory services, and community engagement support. The female founder’s belief inspires the company’s work in the Niger Delta in the power of energy to transform lives and create profitability for women-owned rural businesses following the well-known Solar Mama business model27.
This is consistent with PIND’s A2E programming around gender and social inclusion, which aims for equal access and participation. The support for ETIN Power as a majority women-managed project is a milestone within PIND’s efforts to advance the SDGs.
