Shell-funded impact investment company, All On has announced a £ 1 million investment in Mobile Power Limited, to increase the growth of its Pay-per-use battery sharing platform in Nigeria.
Mobile Power’s energy distribution platform “MOPO” is successfully serving challenging markets, creating local employment, and providing financial and social returns,” said Chris Longbottom, chief executive officer, of Mobile Power Limited.
“The platform offers customers a community-based, agent-led Battery-As-A-Service product that enables them to rent 50 watt-hours (Wh)-1000Wh lithium-ion batteries for 24-hour periods.”
He said, “Nigeria is now our fastest growing market, and we are very excited for our partnership with All On which will accelerate growth in household energy and replace urban generators.”
Established in 2013, UK-headquartered Mobile Power began in Sierra Leone. It also operates in Liberia and entered the Nigerian market in 2021. In 2022 it is starting operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In addition, it has strategic relationships deploying its products and services in other African markets like Uganda, Zambia, and The Gambia.
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Furthermore, Mobile Power’s business strategy is based on aggregating last-mile demand and optimising battery rentals in the communities where its MOPO agents are active.
The business achieves this by embedding incentives into the product’s technology and pricing to influence agent and customer behaviour.
“This deal fully aligns with All On’s mission to support the deployment of innovative and user-friendly renewable energy solutions,” said Afolabi Akinrogunde, acting CEO and investment manager, All On.
“Particularly for Nigeria’s under-served and unserved markets.”
He said, “We look forward to continuing to work with the MOPO team to scale this model and provide commercially sustainable decentralized renewable power solutions to Nigerians.”
In addition, the MOPO offering removes the product acquisition challenge from the equation for potentially millions of unserved homes and micro businesses in Nigeria.
Furthermore, this empowers them to secure the energy they need, when they need it and for how long they need it.
All On, through the All On Hub, has been providing non-financial support to Mobile Power to support its Nigeria market entry since 2021.
Mobile Power’s current hubs in Nigeria are in Ekiti State and Ondo State, Southwestern Nigeria, where it has deployed over 40 hubs, with 20,000 households and 1,000,000 rentals since it commenced operations in mid-2021.
Also, it is one of the fastest energy access project deployment rates in the Nigerian off-grid energy space.
In addition, Mobile Power expects to roll out multiples of its current deployment numbers across Nigeria over the next year. The All On Investment will help power its ambitious pan-Nigerian deployment and expansion drive.
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