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InfraCredit Nigeria is expected to announce a guarantee for a local solar panel assembly plant in March 2026, Ojuru Adeniji, VP of Origination and Structuring, told Energy Capital & Power. The deal will combine concessional capital from the Bank of Industry and marks the first credit guarantee for solar manufacturing infrastructure on the continent.
“Solar panel assembly is where we see a lot of potential and growth,” Adeniji said. “We will soon announce InfraCredit’s guarantee for a solar panel manufacturing plant, but we are still [finalizing] approvals and documentation.”
The move positions InfraCredit at the center of Nigeria’s drive to localize solar production. The country imported around 1,721 MW of Chinese panels in the 12 months to June 2025, making it Africa’s second-largest importer after South Africa. Two assembly plants, Auxano and Blue Camel, are operational, with two more under construction.
A zero-tariff policy on solar cells, the key input for panel production, is already in place. In October 2025, Nigeria signed $435 million in renewable energy manufacturing agreements as part of its plan to develop 4 GW of domestic solar manufacturing capacity.
Tapping Pension Capital at Scale
InfraCredit’s core model focuses on channeling Nigerian pension fund capital into infrastructure. It achieved this by combining a AAA domestic credit rating from Agusto & Co. and Global Credit Ratings with backing from major capital providers, including the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, GuarantCo, British International Investment (BII), KfW and Africa Finance Corporation.
“Getting the pension fund to accept a guarantee from an entity that had not been tested took some level of education,” Adeniji said. “Showing them the capital providers that we have gave them a lot of confidence.”
The model has proven reliable: no InfraCredit guarantee has been called to date. In November 2024, BII committed a $30 million risk-sharing and blended local currency co-financing facility to scale DRE project support, combining a $20 million counter-guarantee with $10 million in concessional financing through the Climate Finance Blending Facility.
Regulatory Tailwinds
Several policy shifts have expanded InfraCredit’s addressable market. The unbundling of Nigeria’s power sector and new state-level electricity market autonomy have created opportunities for decentralized solutions. The removal of fuel subsidies made diesel-dependent power sharply more expensive, pushing commercial and industrial users toward solar. The World Bank’s DARES program has further enabled business models such as rural agro-processing hubs and productive-use clusters. InfraCredit highlighted First Electric, a mesh-grid initiative serving micro-SMEs, as a pipeline deal with significant development impact.
A Model Going Continental
InfraCredit helped launch Dhamana Guarantee Company in Kenya, which formally launched in September 2024 and completed its first transaction in late 2025: a KES 2.5 billion guarantee-backed financing to solarize Safaricom’s base transceiver stations. Dhamana covers East Africa, while Pakistan’s InfraZamin follows a similar blueprint inspired by InfraCredit.
“What has helped us is standardization,” Adeniji said. “We’ve standardized the products, the sectors we go into and how we review them.”
InfraCredit is now exploring Zambia and discussions with partners in other African markets. The African Development Bank, which took a $10 million equity stake in Dhamana in 2024, has stated it plans to replicate the InfraCredit model across the continent.
 

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