Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Husk Power, Manoj Sinha. Photo credit: Barclays The Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Husk Power, Manoj Sinha, in this interview with OKECHUKWU NNODIM on the sidelines of the recently concluded Spring Meetings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, speaks on rural electrification, investment gaps, and Nigeria’s energy future Can you explain how Husk Power is addressing affordability and pricing concerns in Nigeria’s energy market?
The pressure is pricing. Absolutely. I started this company to bring affordable, reliable, and clean power to people in the rural parts of the world. So I totally understand affordability and what people can pay. If people cannot afford it, they cannot pay. We were just talking about diesel prices.
We used to be 50 per cent cheaper than diesel when diesel was about N1,000 per litre. Now diesel is about N2,000 per litre, and we are probably 70 per cent cheaper. So when we electrify a village with our isolated mini-grids or interconnected mini-grid solutions in Nigeria, we cut down the energy costs people pay as an alternative to diesel by at least 50 per cent.
But that is only half the story. The bigger part is that when we bring electricity, we also bring economic activity that you can equate to a local industrial revolution. For instance, rice mills that did not exist in the ecosystem come online because they are powered by affordable electricity, so rice can be processed locally in Nasarawa State.
Similarly, we bring cold storage so people do not have to discard fish at the end of the day. They can store it for two days and sell it in the market. So we increase income levels in the communities we serve. Our job is not just generating electricity and sending it to people; it is also about creating an ecosystem that instigates local economic activities.
We have more than 300 employees in Nigeria, and about 90 per cent of these jobs are in the rural areas where we operate. We are creating jobs, reducing energy costs, and boosting economic activities that increase money circulation in villages. How does your model operate across different segments of the Nigerian power market?
I would break it down into three parts. The current national grid is not present everywhere. There are about 90 million people without access to the grid, which is almost half of Nigeria’s population. That is the population we serve with isolated mini-grids. For example, in a village in Nasarawa State with about 2,000 households, we built a 100 to 200-kilowatt mini-grid.
These are solar plants with battery backup. We run distribution lines up to five kilometres and provide electricity on a pay-as-you-go basis. Everything is metered using smart prepaid systems. The second segment involves areas served by distribution companies, mostly urban centres where the grid exists but power is available for only six to 10 hours daily.
We partner with DisCos like AEDC to build interconnected mini-grids of up to 10 megawatts. These act as local power plants, combining grid supply with our own generation to provide 24/7 power. The cost of solar and batteries has dropped significantly over the past five years, making power generation cheaper.
We are also thankful to the World Bank for the DARES grant programme, which helps subsidise costs in very remote areas. Nigeria’s total grid capacity is about 60 gigawatts, but only about two gigawatts is actually delivered, while demand is around 50 gigawatts.