Nigeria’s Unity Bank has agreed with venture capital-backed Daystar Power to switch the power supply of the bank’s 240 business offices across the African country to battery backed-up solar power solutions.

With the full conversion to solar power of all branches of the bank will require a combined solar capacity of about 7MW, and is planned for this year and next.

Daystar Power belongs to the venture capital company Sunray Ventures, with German founders Christian Wessels and Jasper Graf von Hardenberg, which has set itself the task of contributing to the electrification of Africa through private equity investments that promote the expansion of renewables.

“A significant gap between required and available electricity from the grid is prevalent across Nigeria, leading to most businesses using diesel generators for most of the day,” Wessels explained.

“However, advances in technology have made it economical for commercial and industrial customers alike to switch to cleaner hybrid solar power solutions.”

Unity Bank is Nigeria’s eighth-largest bank by business locations.

It was not immediately clear what the overall volume of the solar installations for Unity Bank will be, or in which timeframe its power supply is slated to be switched to a hybrid solar-battery solution.

UPDATES with volume of orders for solar installations

Transition

Daystar Power to switch Nigeria’s Unity Bank to solar supply