Okra – Business model revolution with mesh-grid (Nigeria)

This case study examines Renewvia's transition from traditional mini-grids to Okra's mesh-grid technology in Nigeria. After facing reliability issues and high costs with mini-grids, Renewvia deployed a 75-connection mesh-grid pilot in Emakalakala in 2024, which resulted in significantly lower capex, higher uptime, and improved revenue performance, leading to a strategic shift to deploy over 21,000 mesh-grid connections.

• Renewvia's traditional mini-grid operations in Oloibiri and Akipelai suffered from reliability issues, where power theft, system losses, and high-demand users caused system-wide blackouts, reducing average uptime to 60% (with a range of 40% to 85%).
• A 2024 pilot project in Emakalakala using Okra's mesh-grid technology—consisting of 15 Hubs and 60 Spokes for 75 connections—demonstrated superior economics and performance compared to mini-grids. Key results included a capex per connection approximately 50% lower than mini-grid deployments, uptime of 99.1% (exceeding the 90% target), and revenue performance reaching 99% of the target, which reduced the payback period by 3 years.
• The mesh-grid architecture solved Renewvia's reliability crisis because it can manage simultaneous peak loads from multiple households, making it more resilient to blackouts caused by high demand than traditional mini-grids.
• Following the pilot's success, Renewvia has shifted its strategy to focus entirely on mesh-grids, planning a pipeline of more than 21,000 connections over the next 18 months and launching an appliance financing pilot with Afrimash and Okra’s LMA app.

APA

Alliance for Renewable Electrification (2026). Okra – Business model revolution with mesh-grid (Nigeria). https://renewelec.org/case-study/okra-business-model-revolution-with-mesh-grid-nigeria/

Chicago

Alliance for Renewable Electrification. Okra – Business model revolution with mesh-grid (Nigeria). 2026. https://renewelec.org/case-study/okra-business-model-revolution-with-mesh-grid-nigeria/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Alliance for Renewable Electrification |title=Okra – Business model revolution with mesh-grid (Nigeria) |date=23 February 2026 |url=https://renewelec.org/case-study/okra-business-model-revolution-with-mesh-grid-nigeria/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{allianceforrenewableelectrification2026okra, author = {{Alliance for Renewable Electrification}}, title = {{Okra – Business model revolution with mesh-grid (Nigeria)}}, institution = {Alliance for Renewable Electrification}, year = {2026}, month = feb, url = {https://renewelec.org/case-study/okra-business-model-revolution-with-mesh-grid-nigeria/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }