Digital backbone for a $750m energy access program, from Nigeria to 21 countries

Program design, delivery and monitoring on one platform

VIDA works with the World Bank as a funder and with Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency on the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) program. Across this four-year program, now in its second year, VIDA’s data and software platform supports the full life cycle: the design of the loan arrangement, implementation, and ongoing monitoring. The approach has proven successful in Nigeria and is now being replicated across a regional program expected to reach 21 countries.

 

Planning

VIDA’s data and platform informed the design of the loan arrangement, including a geographically differentiated subsidy. Under this structure, companies receive a higher subsidy for electrifying communities that are harder to reach, so payment reflects the difficulty and commercial viability of each connection. A flat subsidy produces the opposite incentive: developers concentrate on the least costly areas and absorb a disproportionate share of available funds. In Nigeria, the differentiated structure has saved more than $100m of a $750m program within its first two years of implementation.

Implementation

The platform serves as the shared source of market intelligence for the government and more than 250 private electrification companies. Developers use VIDA’s data to identify and select sites continuously as they build, while the government uses the same platform to appraise the proposals those companies submit. The entire market, public and private, operates from a single evidence base.

Monitoring

The platform tracks national progress and the electrification footprint of each participating company. This allows the government to observe how subsidy is translating into connections delivered, and to adjust incentives accordingly.

The World Bank team responsible for scaling both the differentiated subsidy mechanism and the underlying digital platform has extended the model regionally. Phase 1 is now live in four countries: Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Central African Republic and Benin. Regional DARES is expected to reach 21 countries over time.