Sun King, one of the world’s largest off-grid solar companies, has secured financing from a World Bank-backed programme to boost electrification in Nigeria.

According to Bloomberg, the company secured a naira-denominated loan of $80m, about N128bn, from the International Finance Corp. and Stanbic IBTC Bank Ltd.

The deal is the largest local-currency facility for energy access in Nigeria. The company said the deal is particularly important because the funds are denominated in naira, not dollars.

“What’s really exciting about this is that it’s a local-currency facility. It eliminates foreign-exchange risk and allows us to offer more affordable financing to our customers,” Sun King’s co-founder, Anish Thakkar, said.

It was disclosed that Sun King will use the funds to provide solar electricity systems to an additional four million households across Nigeria within the next five years. That would more than double its existing footprint, which currently covers two million homes.

The solar kits come with small panels and rechargeable batteries, and users pay around $0.21 (N320) daily over the course of a year.

For many rural communities, it’s a significant yet manageable cost in exchange for the stability and dignity of having constant power. The hardware is designed to last up to a decade.

“We can’t ignore the scale of Nigeria’s electricity problem. Around 90 million people in the country remain disconnected from the grid. That’s nearly half the population. Diesel generators and candlelight remain their fallback options,” the statement explained.

This new loan is part of an international initiative to bridge Africa’s energy gap. It feeds into Mission 300, a joint initiative by the World Bank and African Development Bank that aims to connect 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa to electricity by 2030.

The project expects both public and private investments to pour into scalable, cost-effective energy solutions. In 2021, Sun King, previously known as Greenlight Planet, pulled off a similar $75 million deal in Kenya focused on off-grid energy expansion.