For much of the past decade, discussions around Africa’s energy future have been dominated by questions of technology.
- How quickly can renewable energy systems be deployed?
- Which technologies offer the lowest costs?
- How can solar, battery storage, mini-grids, and embedded generation expand energy access across underserved markets?
These questions remain important. Yet according to Ishaq Bolarinwa, Chief Executive Officer of Anfani, they are increasingly addressing the wrong problem.
The technologies required to transform Africa’s energy landscape already exist. Solar modules, batteries, smart meters, remote monitoring systems, digital payment platforms, and distributed generation models have matured considerably and continue to improve.
The greater challenge lies elsewhere. The challenge is ensuring that capital can flow efficiently to the households, businesses, communities, and enterprises that need energy most.
For Bolarinwa, Africa’s energy deficit is no longer fundamentally a technology deficit.
It is a financing deficit.
The Energy Access Paradox
The contradiction is striking.
Africa possesses some of the world’s most abundant renewable energy resources. Solar irradiation levels across much of the continent rank among the highest globally. Wind, hydro, and emerging clean energy opportunities remain substantial.
Yet millions of households and businesses continue to operate without reliable electricity.
This reality is often described as an infrastructure challenge. Bolarinwa views it differently.
The issue is not simply whether renewable energy solutions exist. The issue is whether those solutions can be financed in ways that reflect the economic realities of African consumers and enterprises.
Across many markets, the businesses and communities most in need of reliable energy are also those least capable of paying large upfront costs. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, rural communities, and underserved customers frequently face limited access to affordable finance, irregular cash flows, and weak formal credit histories.
As a result, commercially viable energy solutions often remain inaccessible to those who need them most.
The consequence is an energy access paradox: proven technologies exist, demand exists, economic benefits are clear, yet adoption remains constrained.
The missing ingredient is capital.
Why Technology Is No Longer the Main Barrier
One of the most compelling aspects of Bolarinwa’s argument is his insistence that Africa has already solved much of the technological challenge. Renewable energy systems have become increasingly efficient, modular, and deployable.
The real challenge is affordability.
Many businesses already spend substantial amounts on diesel generators, petrol-powered systems, fuel logistics, maintenance, and productivity losses resulting from unreliable grid supply.
In many cases, renewable energy alternatives are economically superior over the life of the asset.
However, customers frequently lack the ability to absorb the initial investment required to make the transition.
This creates what Bolarinwa describes as a financing gap between energy need and energy adoption.
Bridging that gap requires financing structures that align with how African businesses actually operate.
Rethinking Energy Finance
Traditional financing models often assume stable cash flows, extensive credit histories, and conventional collateral structures.
Many African customers operate within a different reality. This has led to the emergence of more adaptive financing models.
- Lease-to-own structures.
- Pay-as-you-go financing.
- Energy-as-a-service arrangements.
- Asset-backed financing.
- Blended finance vehicles.
- Risk-sharing mechanisms.
Each of these approaches seeks to achieve the same objective: reducing the upfront burden on customers while creating sustainable repayment pathways for investors and financiers.
According to Bolarinwa, successful energy finance is not simply about extending credit.
It is about building complete operating models that protect both customers and investors.
Financing must be supported by proper system sizing, installation quality, customer engagement, monitoring, maintenance, and long-term support.
In other words, energy finance is not merely a financial exercise.
It is an operational one.
The Importance of Project Preparation
Throughout the dialogue, Bolarinwa repeatedly returns to a critical but often overlooked issue: project preparation.
Many renewable energy projects fail to attract financing not because they are technically flawed, but because they are insufficiently prepared for investment.
- Investors require confidence.
- They need evidence that demand exists.
- They need visibility into customer behaviour.
- They need technical assessments, financial models, legal structures, permits, operational plans, and risk mitigation frameworks.
Without these elements, even promising projects can struggle to secure capital.
For Bolarinwa, strengthening project preparation may represent one of the fastest ways to accelerate investment across Africa’s distributed energy sector.
The objective is simple.
Reduce uncertainty.
Improve bankability.
Accelerate financial close.
Making Distributed Energy Investable
Another important theme emerging from the discussion concerns scale. Distributed energy projects often face a structural challenge. Many are too small individually to attract institutional investors. Yet they remain too capital-intensive for local developers to finance independently.
The solution lies in aggregation.
Rather than evaluating hundreds of small projects individually, investors can assess portfolios of standardised assets.
Aggregation reduces transaction costs.
Standardisation improves transparency.
Data improves confidence.
Together, these elements transform distributed energy from a fragmented collection of projects into a recognisable investment asset class. Technology plays an important role here.
Smart meters, digital payments, remote monitoring platforms, and data analytics provide the visibility investors require. The more performance becomes measurable, the easier it becomes to finance.
Measuring What Matters
Perhaps one of Bolarinwa’s most important observations concerns how success should be measured.
Historically, energy access programmes have often focused on outputs:
Connections installed.
Megawatts deployed.
Systems commissioned.
While these indicators remain useful, Bolarinwa argues they fail to capture the true impact of energy access.
The more important question is:
- What does reliable energy enable?
- Does it increase business operating hours?
- Support enterprise growth?
- Reduce fuel costs?
- Create jobs?
- Improve healthcare outcomes?
- Enable digital inclusion?
- Strengthen productivity?
These are the indicators that reveal whether energy investments are genuinely transforming economies.
In this framework, energy access is not a utility outcome.
It is an economic outcome.
Energy as Economic Infrastructure
This perspective leads to one of the most important conclusions of the dialogue.
Governments and investors should stop viewing energy access primarily as a social intervention.
Instead, it should be treated as economic infrastructure.
Reliable energy supports manufacturing.
- It powers agriculture.
- It enables cold storage.
- It drives digital services.
- It strengthens healthcare systems.
- It supports enterprise creation.
- It improves productivity.
In short, energy is not simply a sector.
It is the foundation upon which multiple sectors depend.
This is particularly important for Africa’s industrial ambitions.
Distributed energy systems can often reach productive clusters, businesses, and communities faster than traditional grid expansion alone.
Rather than viewing distributed energy as a temporary solution, Bolarinwa argues it should be understood as part of a broader industrial development strategy
The Next Decade of Energy Finance
Looking ahead, Bolarinwa identifies several trends that will shape the future of energy financing across Africa.
Distributed energy will continue to grow alongside grid expansion.
Financing models will become increasingly customer-centred.
Data will become central to project bankability.
Blended finance will remain important for attracting commercial capital.
Climate finance will increasingly intersect with energy access, resilience, and economic development.
Yet his closing message is perhaps the most important.
Africa’s energy future will not be unlocked by any single actor.
Governments must create enabling policy environments.
Development finance institutions must absorb catalytic risks.
Private investors must provide scale.
Technology providers must improve transparency.
Developers must execute effectively.
Local financial institutions must expand access to capital.
Communities must remain at the centre of implementation.
Only through this ecosystem approach can Africa deliver energy access at the scale required for economic transformation.
Beyond Electricity
At its core, Bolarinwa’s argument is not really about energy.
It is about development.
Reliable energy improves productivity.
Productivity creates enterprise growth.
Enterprise growth creates jobs.
Jobs create income.
Income strengthens communities.
And stronger communities support broader economic transformation.
The challenge therefore extends beyond installing solar panels or deploying batteries.
It is about creating financing systems capable of connecting energy solutions to economic opportunity.
If Africa can successfully align capital, technology, policy, and execution, distributed energy may become one of the continent’s most powerful development multipliers.
Not because the technology is revolutionary.
But because the financing finally works.
Ishaq Bolarinwa is the Chief Executive Officer of Anfani, a renewable energy and infrastructure company focused on expanding access to reliable and sustainable power solutions across Africa. With experience spanning energy finance, project development, and distributed energy systems, he works at the intersection of technology, capital mobilisation, and infrastructure delivery. His work focuses on creating scalable financing and deployment models that enable businesses and communities to access productive energy while supporting broader economic development objectives.