Firm Empowers 100 SMEs to Boost Solar Infrastructure

Stories by Emma Okonji Synafare Energy, a supply chain trade company, that focuses on financing of renewable energy products, celebrated its 2nd year anniversary in Lagos, where it offered between N10 million and N100 million to 100 SME businesses that trade on renewable energy to support and grow their businesses. Explaining the rationale behind the financial support, the CEO and Co-founder, Synafare Energy, Tobi Esho, said the financing would make it easy for merchants to acquire renewable energy assets and pay later with a discounted interest rate that is as low as 3.5 per cent monthly, which is below the five per cent interest rate that lenders offer to businesses. “We make this offer not just for installers or for end customers, but also for distributors who want to stock up. If you buy a large quantity, you buy cheaper.So, we want to make sure that people can buy cheaper and we provide them the capital, that will be paid back after sales,” Esho said. Founder and CEO, Kommercial Solar, Mr. Isaac Babafemi, who spoke at the panel session, stressed the need for capacity building among merchants of renewable energy products. According to him, his solar installation business thrives on three philosophies: Every installation must work; Every installation must be safe; Every installation must come with aesthetics, adding that the philosophies have helped the company to scale from small residential to large residential installation. Founder and CEO, Instollar, Chinwe Udo-Davis, who also spoke as a panelist, highlighted the need for training and re-training of installers, adding that the cost of not training a team of installers, means such business will not grow.