Africa’s renewable energy market is attracting growing interest from investors eager to finance solar projects, but the difficulty of verifying projects and monitoring them after they are built, continues to slow the sector’s growth.
While commercial banks, development finance institutions and impact investors have increased funding for clean energy, developers say it can still take between nine and 12 months for a solar project to secure financing because of lengthy due diligence processes and concerns over the quality of project data.
Nigerian energy technology startup Telios believes solving this problem could unlock faster investment across Africa’s clean energy sector.
Speaking during a meet-up organised by Antler in Lagos, Olubunmi Olajide, co-founder and chief executive officer of Telios, said many renewable energy projects spend months exchanging documents with financiers trying to prove that project data is accurate before funding is approved.
“Normally, it can take commercial banks and specialised impact investors between nine and twelve months to evaluate and invest in a solar project. A huge chunk of that time is lost to back-and-forth due diligence asking if the project data is reliable and where it came from. Telios eliminates that uncertainty by providing verified real-time data that financiers can trust instantly,” Olajide said.
