Synafare to back 100 solar merchants with up to ₦100m each
- Synafare will offer up to ₦100 million in financing to each of 100 solar merchants.
- The firm cut its monthly financing rate to 3.5 per cent for its Lagos roundtable.
- Two merchants had already received a combined ₦170 million before the event.
A renewable energy financing company, Synafare, plans to fund 100 solar equipment sellers with loans of up to ₦100 million each, its chief executive said at an event in Lagos on Saturday, October 24.
The money is meant to help merchants buy stock, widen their reach and take on bigger jobs in a market where many homes and businesses still lack steady power.
Tobi Esho, who co-founded Synafare about two years ago, announced the plan at the company's Solar Roundtable 2.0. He said the business had moved past simply lending to installers and now links manufacturers, distributors and developers.
According to Esho, the smallest loan is usually about ₦10 million, while the ceiling depends on how much business a merchant does. He said two merchants had already collected a combined ₦170 million before the event began.
Cheaper credit for the roundtable
Synafare normally charges four to five per cent a month on its financing. For the roundtable, it lowered that to 3.5 per cent and struck discounted prices with distributors taking part.
The company says it works with more than 2,000 businesses in the sector. Its platform covers inverters, batteries, solar panels, energy-saving appliances, electric bikes and tricycles, and offers buy-now-pay-later terms to installers, distributors and end customers.
Esho warned that lenders do not hand out money just because a business exists. "Financial institutions want to see predictability, structure and business activity," he said.
He urged installers to branch into retail and bulk buying, which he said can lower procurement costs and lift margins, and to build proper structures before chasing large corporate and government contracts.
Skills gap beyond the money
Panelists at the event said cheap credit alone will not grow a solar business. Babafemi Isaac, who heads Kommercial Solar Limited, said his company had moved from fitting panels in homes to serving bigger clients. That shift, he said, forced him to hire more hands and train roofers and other artisans while keeping quality in check.
Chinwe Udo Udun Davies of Instoller stressed staff development and digital tools for firms spreading across several locations. "The cost of not training your people means your business can go down," she said.
Tega Ishaya, a COREN-registered electrical engineer with Elektron Energy Development Strategies Limited, said the country's power gap gives solar firms room to serve two groups: customers with unreliable electricity and communities with none at all.
The test for Synafare's plan will be how many merchants actually get funded, whether they can carry the borrowing cost, and whether the extra stock turns into more sales and more installations.
