By Newsshelve
LAPO Microfinance Bank (LAPO MFB) has disbursed N21.72 billion to finance the acquisition of 768,488 clean-energy products since 2017, helping households, traders, artisans and small businesses cut energy costs and cope with unreliable electricity supply.
The financing is being implemented under the bank’s Environmental Green Clean Lending Initiative, which supports access to solar power, clean cooking and alternative mobility solutions.
The portfolio has expanded beyond basic solar lighting to more than 20 product categories, including solar lamps, fans, radios, refrigerators, freezers, solar home systems, inverters, batteries, solar panels, clean cookstoves, gas cylinders and CNG-powered tricycles.
According to LAPO MFB, the financing is translating into practical economic benefits, with solar-powered freezers helping traders preserve perishable goods, solar lighting enabling artisans to extend their working hours and solar home systems improving household access to electricity.
The bank’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Oluremi Akande, said the initiative was designed to ensure that clean-energy financing delivers measurable benefits to customers.
“The real impact of clean energy is seen in what people are able to do with it. When a trader can preserve more goods, an artisan can work for longer hours, or a household can access reliable lighting, the product becomes more than an energy solution. It becomes an enabler of livelihoods, productivity and better quality of life,” Akande said.
LAPO MFB said its clean-energy products are supplied through partnerships with companies including d.light, Sun King, Oando Gas, SALPHA Energy, Lumos, Koolboks, Bluetti Energy Nigeria, Burn Stove Nigeria and Spiro Mobility Solutions.
The partnerships allow individuals, artisans, cooperatives, groups and small businesses to acquire energy products and repay the cost over time, reducing the burden of upfront payments.
The initiative has also extended to community interventions. In 2023, LAPO MFB, in partnership with Bluetti, supported the donation of 50 E-40 Solar Home Systems valued at N5.225 million.
In 2025, the bank expanded into electric mobility through a partnership with Spiro Mobility Solutions. It also secured a N450 million, 36-month blended-finance facility under the Green for Access First Loss Facility to support lending for e-mobility, solar-powered cooling, productive-use solar systems and standalone solar solutions for healthcare.
The bank said the growth of the programme demonstrates the increasing role of financing in expanding access to clean-energy technologies, particularly among households and small businesses that may struggle to meet the upfront cost of energy equipment.
With 768,488 products financed and N21.72 billion disbursed, LAPO MFB said the initiative is helping move clean-energy solutions from the market into homes, shops and workshops, where they support productivity, energy access, preservation of goods and cleaner transportation.
Comment here