A Remarkable Journey to Leadership in Africa’s Minigrid Ecosystem.
And the Blueprint for Scaling Minigrids Over the Next Decade.
The complexity and scale of the energy access challenge in Africa presents an opportunity for this generation of Africans to catalyse local development, domesticate value chains, strengthen public and private institutions, and redirect capital flows at scale.
Since the first Solar Minigrid in Africa was built in 2012 in Egbeke Community in Nigeria, renewable energy – particularly off-grid solar-powered energy systems - has emerged as a strong contender in providing the energy access that powers our lives and our socio-economic development. Over the past decade, they have grown in scale, at the level of individual system sizes and through the rapid rollout across many sites.
October 2025’s spotlight on Notes on Project Development leads a Pan-African Organisation whose mission is to accelerate universal electrification in Africa by championing the scale and sustainability of minigrids and distributed renewable energy companies through access to capital, robust sector intelligence and data, strategic policy engagement and and high-impact member services.
I met the CEO of Africa Minigrids Developers Association (AMDA) for the first time in March this year when he came to invite the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency to the 8th Mini Grid Action Learning Event that was held in Lusaka, Zambia, April 1 – 3, 2025.
I had just said yes to becoming a Senior Adviser on the MD’s Technical Advisory Team. It was on the third day that I had relocated to Abuja that day Olamide visited the REA to ask the MD to attend this event that was organised by AMDA, The World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
We sat down last week to discuss his journey, what drives him, why he said yes to AMDA, and what key players in the ecosystem need to do to achieve scalability and sustainability of Mingrids in Nigeria and Africa.
“I knew that Law will not be the making of me”
“I was a teenager when my family decided to move to the UK. While my father stayed in Nigeria, my mom, my siblings and I moved there. I completed my secondary school education at Kings College, did my A levels and a foundation year program before starting a Bachelors of Law Degree at the University of Kent at Cantebury. As I dropped the pen after my final year examinations, I just knew deep down that I didn’t really want to practise law. Yet I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so while trying to figure that out, I started and finished a Master’s of law degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Birmingham. After my Master’s, I became a paralegal at a solicitor’s office for about a year. Following some advice from my boss and some persuasion from my dad, I came back home to Nigeria.
“While still on my journey of self discovery, I decided to attend law school and went to Lagos Law School. Returning to Nigeria at that time was pivotal for me after a long stint in the UK because it helped me to relearn Nigeria, while pursuing a corporate career.”
After Law school, Olamide went on to start his National Youth Service. While he didn’t succeed in getting posted to the firm of his choice, he quickly got situated at Wole Olanipekun & Co., experts in dispute resolution and litigation. There, he got a front row seat to many cases contesting election results.
He also now knew with absolute certainty that he wasn’t going to keep pursuing this path. According to him, “I observed that legal proceedings can take years to end, and I needed to see the end of what I started”. “I accepted that while law was a great foundation and a valuable qualification, legal practise would not be the making of me.”
“A volunteer position led to my role as financial market architect.”
In late 2013 he completed his Youth Service at Wole Olanipekun and began seeking opportunities that utilized his legal skillset in more commercial or corporate endeavours.
Then, in early 2014, he heard that the FMDQ Group (then called FMDQ OTC Plc), a debt and foreign exchange securities platform that had just started in November 2013, needed a legal department.
“A friend from law school told me about a volunteer position in the legal department at the FMDQ, which had recently launched, and told me I should consider it.”
“The role was converted into a paid role, and one month after I started in April 2014, the head of legal, with whom I was working, quit”. I became the entire legal department of FMDQ by myself.”
“The CEO at FMDQ saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen in myself. He said to me, “You have a law degree, but you act more like a transactor. That is what we need at FMDQ. A regular lawyer will look at the law and tell us what we cannot do, but FMDQ needs you to look at what we need to do and figure out how we can use the law to do it”.
He took that advice in stride, started the Rules and Regulations function at FMDQ as a regulations officer, and grew into the group head of regulations in under 5 years.
In that period, Olamide and the team at FMDQ helped build Nigeria’s debt capital markets from scratch by writing the rulebook for the market, i.e., designing products for the market, then defining regulation and policy for safe use of these products.
I feel a sense of pride in the work I did at the FMDQ. For instance, whenever I see the prospectus of a Commercial Paper for a company, I see language I wrote, and I am happy I helped make it possible for established companies to raise working capital or short-term loans from the Nigerian money markets and not be solely reliant on commercial banks.
He emphasizes that this period also helped him establish crucial execution tactics like end-to-end conceptualisation of ideas and stakeholder management tactics that establish buy-in and build confidence.
He recounts key achievements during his time at FMDQ:
Market Activation: Activated the FMDQ Bonds, Sukuk, Commercial Paper (CP), and OTC FX Futures Franchises.
Legislation/Regulation: Completed review of the Companies & Allied Matters Act (passed into law in August 2020). Developed market rules, regulations, and guidelines governing conduct, registration, listing, and trading on the Exchange.
Capital Mobilization: The work done at that time helped unlock billions of dollars in new funding. For instance facilitating i) the registration of c.₦900bn in Local Currency Bonds, ii) ₦1.7trn in Commercial Paper Programmes, and iii) $5bn in Foreign Currency Bonds (Eurobond and Diaspora) listed on the FMDQ platform.
“It was time for another blank canvas”
“I had got my fill of deep regulation work and seen its impact on the market. Now I wanted to be on the side that helped create deals and get them to close, see value creation end to end and sell that value to clients using the exchange. I spoke up and I was asked to join Origination, focused on Analytics and Business Intelligence that got transactions to close.
He dove into this new role with gusto and asked for a clear path to leadership, asking for opportunities to lead transactions.
Then, a respected colleague left FMDQ to join another company.
“I consider this person a genius. I learned a lot from him, and his focus and drive matched mine, he kept me on my toes, and I really enjoyed working with him. I also wanted more. While the business intelligence role was proximate to the deals, I wasn’t yet as involved as I would have liked. So, I spoke to a former boss, who made an introduction to the CEO of Mainstream.”
He had really enjoyed the blank canvas that he was given at FMDQ. The roles allowed him to space to imagine what was possible, then shape and evolve it as needed. He saw the role he was offered at Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited - Strategic Adviser to the MD - in a similar vein.
At the time he joined, MESL had won the concessions for the Jebba and Kainji projects, two hydropower dams generating power linked to contracts with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET). MESL needed to set up a function that expanded its portfolio of projects and diversify its end-user base to increase profitability.
According to him, the role was “another blank canvas” and one that shaped the direction of the organisation. It was also a strategic role in a completely different sector, which provided him with a steep learning curve of the entire energy value chain. “I was able to see how turbines turned water into electrons and how those electrons turn into money”. I was able to see and support the whole company in many ways. It also seemed as if I was paid to attend business school because I got to directly observe decision-making, managing politics, and executing strategy within the C-suite. I really enjoyed it”.
In his time at MESL, he and the team he led coordinated end-to-end processes from strategy setting, due diligence, and government engagement for key concessions and projects, including:
The 700MW Zungeru Hydropower Plant.
The 40MW Kashimbila Hydropower Plant.
60% shares in Yola Electricity Distribution Company (Yola DISCO).
Two hydropower plants in the Republic of Congo, providing experience in multi-country transaction nuances.
“The AMDA opportunity came while recovering from a deep personal loss”
“While MESL was still exciting, I had started looking out for more. Then, on October 19, 2022, my father died. It was sudden, and it tilted the world on its axis for me. It was a turbulent time filled with grief I had never experienced before.
I am the first child of an Olori Ebi, and while I was dealing with my own pain, I had to step into the leadership role for the family. (Olori Ebi is Head of Family in Yoruba language and culture)
My father’s death opened my soul up and made me more discerning. It forced a wisdom on me I had to grow into quickly. I sometimes say that the day he died, I became a 66-year-old man” (his age at death).
His death also triggered a renewed desire in me to fulfil his prophecy over me. For as long as I could remember, he would call me “our CEO”. He was successful in his own right, lived for his people, and was well-loved. He died while holding political office as the Speaker of the House of Assembly of the State we are from – Ekiti.
The searches I conducted for my next opportunity after MESL were for Chief of Staff roles, not CEO roles, because I wasn’t sure I was ready. His death gave me a deep sense of clarity that it was time. When the AMDA opportunity came, I was prepared to go all in and win it.”
When the recruiter for AMDA approached him on LinkedIn about the position, he had only heard of Mini Grids in passing from an acquaintance who had worked on Nigeria’s regulations. His work so far hadn’t yet intersected with minigrids. However, it ticked all the boxes for him, a CEO role in an international organisation with a pan-african focus that had a wide scale of impact. It also gave him a chance to leverage all his past experiences that had a nexus of policy, advocacy, and finance. He took up his position as CEO of AMDA in August 2023.
“I bring a fresh perspective to AMDA”
Africa Minigrids Developers Association (AMDA) started in 2018, with members located across 24 African countries. Olamide is the third CEO, and since taking over the role, the number of corporate members has risen from 44 to 61, with the association now opening up membership to other players in the ecosystem.
AMDA’s mandate is driven by four core pillars:
Deliver Member Value: Supporting developers to become sustainable businesses and translating the value of the other pillars.
Access to Capital: Facilitating dialogue with investors to attract deeper pools of patient capital and mapping funding opportunities.
Policy and Regional Coordination: Engaging with policymakers and regulators to ensure an enabling environment for sustainable development at scale.
Research, Data & Standards: Serving as a reference point for reliable data and working to standardise the sector.
“I like that I bring a fresh perspective to the organisation. I am relatively new to the sector, and I am accustomed to large-scale projects and operations. Scale is what the sector needs now.”
He emphasizes that his long-term objective is to move the sector beyond proving the concept to achieving massive scale through deliberate efforts to ensure favourable and business-friendly policies.
“I want to work with members to scale their businesses and the sector on the continent.” “The last decade was about proving minigrids could work. The next decade is about scaling up efficiently. Helping developers grow from managing tens of sites to managing hundreds or even thousands of sites.
“Minigrids complement the Grid, they don’t compete with it.”
In his opinion, minigrids complement rather than compete with the grid, and will become even more pivotal to closing the energy access challenge. He sees them as essential infrastructure in addressing the energy access challenge for the following reasons:
Allows Targeted and Rapid Deployment: Minigrids offer a flexible and fast solution, enabling power to be delivered to areas that the national grid cannot reach quickly, or where grid expansion is too slow or too costly. Waiting for the national grid to show up can take decades and cost billions, whereas a minigrid can be functional in a matter of months.
Strengthen Existing Grid Areas: He suggests that governments and conventional distribution companies (discos) should also focus resources on areas where the grid already exists and deploy interconnected mini grids to strengthen the network reliability in those areas.
Decentralization = Manageability: He noted that decentralizing the commercial or technical side of electricity networks makes sense for manageability and scalability. “I got a conceptual understanding of the scale of distribution networks from the work done acquiring the Yola DISCO. “I observed that the network was too wide and would eventually be too expensive to cover entirely”. He suggested chopping the larger grid networks into “more sizable business units“ that could operate as almost standalone companies.
The Future-Ready Architecture: The future of energy may not be one single massive interconnected system, but thousands of more flexible, local, decentralized, and resilient grids. Minigrids can form the backbone of this Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) architecture, integrating with other technologies like off-grid solar and digital platforms to meet people where they are, therefore, deploying minigrids is about being future-ready.
“Think beyond connection, focus on consumption”
When I asked Olamide how the sector can scale, he advised that “The sector is still too grant dependent, until viability can be proven, no real scale will be achieved. All the players in the ecosystem must be intentional about moving beyond connections to consumption; that is when there will be true scale of deployment and lasting viability and impact in the sector.”
He then went on to address what each major player in the ecosystem can do to reduce dependence on grants and increase viability, which will scale up the sector. He shares as follows:
For Donors and Development Institutions: Structure catalytic results-based financing grant programs to support consumption. Current grant programs need to be redesigned to accommodate commercial and productive connections and reward consumption, not connections. This is what will drive the behaviour of developers in that direction.
For Developers: Developers must adopt a long-term view, recognizing that “overreliance on donor capital is not sustainable”. Their business models need to adjust to commercial reality and avoid the “valley of death” where companies fail due to over-reliance on grants. They must build
Robust Revenue Streams: Explore variety in customer profiles and ensure a much more robust, stratified customer profile with revenues at the right levels. Target residential, social, commercial, and productive users, and price accordingly to match users.
Expand Core Structure: Hire experienced professionals, such as CFOs, to build out the core company structure, which makes them more attractive to investors willing to bet on their long-term potential, because they are not seen as one-person shops but serious businesses that are building for the future.
Seek Collaboration: Actively seek opportunities to collaborate with energy users and their stakeholders to understand, size, and then serve these users.
For Investors: Move past traditional thinking on transaction horizons and sequence capital more effectively.
Patient Equity First at Company Level: Early-stage companies need patient, risk-absorbing equity first to build a track record, validate the business case, and build the company infrastructure, fund R&D, hire quality staff, etc. There must be early-stage equity that can handle start-up and growth corporate risks, first
Debt Follows: Only after the model is proven should debt—concessional, blended, or commercial debt—be brought in “as fuel for the fire”.
Longer Horizon: Extend their investment outlook to 10 or more years, so that systems that sustain growth can be built.
For Government: The sector does not need more regulation, but better regulation that provides certainty and enforceability.
Clear Compensation Frameworks: Provide clear rules that guarantee compensation for minigrid developers if the national grid eventually arrives.
Portfolio Approvals: Approving a portfolio of projects at once, instead of the slower site-by-site approval process, is necessary to build investor confidence.
Pragmatic Licensing: Adopt an approach where a company receives an operating license as a minigrid company for a given time frame (similar to a distribution company) and only needs to notify the regulator when extending its services beyond that license, rather than obtaining licenses for each site.
Align System Capacity Limits to Targeted Scale: Review the system capacity caps on minigrids to increase the system sizes, so that more industrial, utility-scale projects can be built.
Tax Incentives: Introduce tax breaks to incentivize the hard work done by developers.
Bringing it all home
For Africa’s energy access gap to be closed sustainably, the focus must fundamentally shift from traditional, centralized thinking to a decentralized, market-driven approach, and stakeholders in the ecosystem must adopt a long-term horizon while designing their regulation, programs, projects, and transaction structures.
Decentralized renewable energy are already connecting people. They must now be recognized as essential, long-term, scalable infrastructure that complements, rather than competes with, the national grid.
For energy access to be truly transformative and long-lasting, policies and donor programs must move “beyond the connection” and prioritize consumption and the wider economic benefits. Sustainability is achieved by helping developers build commercially viable business models with a healthy mix of social and economic clients that consume power both day and night.
Find and follow Olamide Niyi-Afuye :
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lamideniyiafuye/
Find, Follow, and Join AMDA
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8356812/
https://www.africamda.org/
communications@africamda.org