Starsight gets $10 million funding to expand solar power solutions in Nigeria, Ghana

A Helios and AIIM-backed solar power solutions firm, Starsight Energy, said it has obtained a $10 million financing that would enlarge its current senior debt facility in a bid to scale up its generation capacity and services in the Nigerian and Ghanaian markets.

The on-grid and off-grid energy services provider would have its existing debt with Finnfund and Oslo-based Norfund – two European development financiers with interest in developing countries – increased by 100 per cent to $20 million, Helsinki-based Finnfund said Thursday in a website statement.

“As we expand from Nigeria to Ghana and beyond, this funding will be key to our ability to swiftly deploy hybrid-solar solutions to new C&I customers,” said Starsight chief, Tony Carr.

“Starsight is uniquely positioned to remain a market leader thanks to this backing from the Nordic DFI’s, as well as our equity investors Helios Investment Partners and Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers.”

The three parties struck the original $10 million deal in 2019, which has helped Starsight widen its reach to more than 500 sites, 36 megawatt of installed generating capacity and 28 megawatt hour.

The new funding marks the second time in three days a solar firm in the West African region will get funding, with Daystar Power declaring on Tuesday it had got $38 million credit facility.

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Power inadequacy is a major impediment to growth in Africa’s largest economy, where four in every five people in the over 200 million population lack access to grid electricity and those that have are often at the mercy of perennial blackouts.

That has opened up a gap in supply and created an opportunity for a number of solar power firms, which are launching various renewable energy initiatives to bridge the shortfall and earn huge cash.

“We have seen a more than fiftyfold increase in power-as-a-service revenue over the last two years,” said Jasper Graf von Hardenberg, Daystar CEO in a statement on Tuesday.