British International Investment (BII) is deepening its focus on power, agriculture, and small businesses in Nigeria as its local portfolio approaches $600 million, spanning 116 companies and supporting more than 54,000 jobs, according to its West Africa regional director Benson Adenuga. The development finance institution is backing mini-grids under the World Bank–supported DARES programme to expand electricity access, while using local-currency structures to reduce currency risk and crowd in private capital. In agriculture, BII is investing across the value chain, from smallholder-focused platforms such as Babban Gona to fertiliser and agro-processing, to help farmers manage rising costs and climate shocks. Adenuga said sustained macroeconomic stability, predictable regulation and patient capital are critical to unlocking larger flows of private investment into Nigeria’s economy. BusinessDay’s Wasiu Alli brings the excerpt:
Nigeria’s World Bank–backed DARES programme is ambitious, aiming to expand energy access through mini-grids. How does BII’s $7.5m facility with Odyssey Energy Solutions practically reduce barriers for developers?
Nigeria has one of the world’s largest energy access gaps, with around 92 million people still without electricity. Mini-grids powered by renewable energy are a practical and scalable way to close that gap, especially in rural areas where extending the national grid is prohibitively expensive.
As a long-term development partner to Nigeria, our $7.5 million financing facility with Odyssey Energy Solutions directly supports the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up (DARES) programme, backed by the World Bank. It helps developers overcome one of their biggest challenges, which is the high upfront cost of importing and installing solar and battery equipment.
Through Odyssey’s technology platform, developers can procure high-quality, vetted equipment with flexible payment terms, paying back as projects start generating revenue. This lowers entry barriers, speeds up deployment, and enhances quality assurance.
The facility also leverages Odyssey’s $3 billion project pipeline, supporting Nigeria’s target of providing electricity for 17.5 million people under DARES. By combining concessional finance with a digital procurement solution, we’re creating a model that can be replicated across Africa’s off-grid markets.
Beyond this investment, BII is delivering market-shaping platforms to strengthen Africa’s energy value chains. Through investments such as our $30 million facility with InfraCredit to expand local-currency financing for decentralised renewable energy in Nigeria. Across Africa, our long-term partnership with Globeleq to develop independent power projects, and Gridworks’ investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure, BII is helping to bridge the continent’s energy access gap.
Beyond access, how do you measure the broader economic and social impact of energy access investments — job creation, productivity, and community resilience?
At BII, we see energy access as a strategic enabler of economic empowerment. Reliable, affordable power enables jobs, healthcare, education, and fuels the growth of homegrown businesses. Improved access to power directly enhances the quality of life for Nigerians nationwide. Our energy investments have helped millions of people and businesses transition from diesel generators to clean, stable power. For example, our investment in Sun King is providing 11.2 million households and businesses in Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda with pay-as-you-go energy access services.
Our projects also focus on strengthening local value chains. InfraCredit, for instance, is using our $30 million investment to support decentralised renewable energy (DRE) projects, which are expected to enable over 57,000 new energy connections, increase renewable energy capacity by 20.1 MWp, reach 564 communities, create 2,558 jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 158.3 tonnes. It will also mobilise funding from domestic pension funds, ensuring long-term, local participation.
Ultimately, we measure success not just by megawatts delivered, but by the livelihoods improved and the resilience we can support in the communities we are committed to. We examine metrics such as household income growth, SME productivity gains, and reductions in carbon emissions. In 2023, our direct energy investments contributed to over 1.5 million tons of CO2e emissions avoided, a 54 percent year-on-year increase. This is a tangible reflection of BII’s economic and environmental impact in the countries we partner with.
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What policy or regulatory bottlenecks still hinder scaling mini-grids, and how can DFIs like BII work with Nigerian authorities to address them?
Nigeria has made significant progress on regulatory reform; the 2023 Electricity Act decentralised power generation and empowered States to accelerate mini-grid deployment. However, challenges remain in financing clean energy infrastructure at scale, primarily due to currency volatility, which discourages long-term investment and raises project costs.
DFIs like BII play a crucial role in addressing these gaps by de-risking early-stage projects and providing patient, flexible capital that absorbs risks. We also help to mobilise domestic institutional investors, who are better positioned to finance projects in local currency.
Our $30 million investment in InfraCredit illustrates this approach. By leveraging InfraCredit’s naira-denominated guarantees, we are helping to co-finance decentralised renewable energy (DRE) projects and demonstrate that clean energy investments can be viable in local currency. This not only mitigates foreign exchange risk but also crowds in private capital, laying the foundation for a more resilient, self-sustaining energy market in Nigeria.
Your recent $7.5m investment in Babban Gona comes at a time when food inflation in Nigeria is within double digits. How will this investment directly help farmers cope with rising input costs and climate shocks?
Our investment in Babban Gona is part of a broader strategy to strengthen Nigeria’s agricultural value chain and support smallholder farmers facing rising input costs and climate-related challenges. The $7.5 million facility builds on Babban Gona’s AI-driven platform, which provides smallholders with access to finance, quality inputs, agronomic training, and guaranteed markets, ensuring they can maintain productivity despite economic headwinds. The platform’s climate-smart practices, such as drought-resistant seeds and crop insurance, also help farmers recover faster from shocks and improve long-term resilience.
By 2029, this investment will help reach over 140,000 farmers, boosting yields, increasing rural incomes, and enabling farmer-led enterprises to access local bank financing through Babban Gona’s franchise model. This creates a multiplier effect, unlocking more domestic capital to boost growth in rural economies and increase access to markets for farmers in last-mile communities.
Beyond this, BII’s agricultural investments in Nigeria cover the full value chain, from inputs to processing and exports. Our $40.5 million commitment to Johnvents Industries is expanding local cocoa processing capacity for domestic and export markets, while creating jobs, driving higher-value exports, and advancing sustainable, farmer-led agribusinesses that reinforce Nigeria’s economic diversification beyond oil, which is key. We have also committed a $30 million equity investment in Valency International (2023-2024), a global agri-commodities firm expanding cashew processing and warehousing facilities in Nigeria. This investment will create up to 2,800 jobs for low-income workers and provide market access to 60,000 smallholder farmers, boosting agricultural output and Nigeria’s export potential.
These investments demonstrate our holistic approach to building more resilient agricultural value chains that help farmers in Nigeria and across Africa produce more, earn more, and adapt to climate and economic shocks, while contributing to national food security and revitalising regional trade.
Smallholder farmers in Northern Nigeria face financing gaps, low productivity, and weak market access. Which of these barriers do you see as most urgent to tackle for systemic change? How does BII de-risk agri-investments to attract more commercial capital into the sector?
The most urgent barrier is the financing gap, because it limits farmers’ ability to access quality inputs, training, and reliable markets, all of which are essential for lasting productivity gains. Smallholders in Northern Nigeria, who produce 60 percent of the country’s staple crops like maize, face acute liquidity challenges and up to 30 percent post-harvest due to lack of access to finance and modern infrastructure.
BII addresses this by de-risking early-stage and high-impact agribusinesses, demonstrating their commercial viability to attract private investors. Our investment in Babban Gona supports its franchise model, which enables top-performing smallholders to build micro-enterprises capable of securing local bank finance, creating a pathway for local capital to flow into rural economies.
At a broader level, we are strengthening critical value chains through large-scale investments such as our $65 million commitment to Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemicals, the largest urea producer in sub-Saharan Africa, helping guarantee input supply and expand production for regional markets.
Beyond Nigeria, our pan-African investments amplify this approach. Through our $85 million joint commitment with Swedfund and Norfund to AgDevCo, we are supporting over two million smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa to boost productivity, expand access to markets, and strengthen food security through climate-resilient agribusinesses.
BII has created Growth Investment Partners in Ghana as a model platform. What lessons from Ghana’s experience can be applied to Nigeria’s SME financing landscape?
Growth Investment Partners (GIP) Ghana was designed to tackle the shortage of long-term, flexible finance for SMEs. Backed by an anchor commitment of up to $50 million from BII, the platform provides funding between $500,000 and $5 million, and technical support to local businesses in Ghana. Over the next 15 years, GIP will invest in more than 150 SMEs across multiple sectors, catalysing job creation, deepening value chains, and expanding economic opportunity across Ghana. Building on this model, we have recently launched GIP Zambia, which has brought in NAPSA – the local pension fund, and Swedfund, another European DFI – as co-investors, demonstrating how local and international cooperation can anchor platforms that create sustainable SME financing ecosystems across Africa.
For Nigeria, which has a similarly vibrant entrepreneurial base but continues to face structural financing constraints, this model offers clear lessons. It highlights the importance of developing homegrown investment platforms that are anchored locally and tailored to the realities of domestic SMEs. It also underscores the role of local-currency financing in reducing exposure to FX volatility, a key constraint for Nigerian businesses seeking to grow and export. Finally, it shows that pairing capital with technical support and patient repayment structures can de-risk SME lending for both domestic and international investors.
These principles reflect our wider role as a development finance institution, one that builds successful businesses, investment platforms, strengthens local financial markets, and enables long-term private capital mobilisation.