From digital brokerage to digital infrastructure: Rethinking how clean energy reaches MSMEs
Across Nigeria, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) need reliable, affordable energy to operate and grow. Yet selecting suitable technology, finding capable providers and securing workable financing remain barriers to adoption. Addressing these challenges requires coordination across the entire project lifecycle.
This is the gap Anfani Energy set out to close. Our platform connects customers, renewable energy providers and financiers across solar home systems, productive use assets, mini-grids and electric vehicle projects. We match needs with solutions, support deployments and monitor operating assets, and these activities now underpin our evolution from digital brokerage towards digital infrastructure.
The distinction matters. Digital brokerage brings market participants together. Digital infrastructure connects the information and workflows that help them deliver projects and manage assets over time, linking customer requirements, technical suitability, financing considerations and operational performance. Whatever the sector, the principle is the same: understand the customer, assess the operating environment and match the solution to the business.
Agriculture shows how this works. Through our collaboration model, agricultural intelligence identifi es production activities, locations and seasonal needs; climate risk intelligence assesses vulnerabilities such as drought and flooding; and energy and financing intelligence connects these insights with equipment choices, provider capabilities, project costs and repayment capacity.
Take a farmer facing water shortages. Agricultural and climate information establishes irrigation needs. A technical assessment checks water availability, pumping requirements and the suitability of solar irrigation, while a financing assessment considers seasonal income and affordability. Together, these steps guide provider matching, financing and deployment, turning information into a practical investment decision.
Our role does not end at installation. We track system performance and energy use across different asset types and, alongside repayment and customer outcome data, use this to assess technical and commercial performance.
That visibility is what makes portfolios investable. Financiers need evidence of how assets perform, how customers repay and where risks require attention. Connecting operational and commercial information supports ongoing oversight and better informed investment decisions, while helping providers identify service needs and plan future deployments.
Ultimately, the value of digitalisation lies in making these connections useful. Customers receive support throughout their energy journey, providers work with clearer requirements, and financiers gain greater visibility into projects and portfolios. By building on our matching, deployment and monitoring capabilities, Anfani aims to make clean energy more accessible, investable and scalable for underserved businesses across Africa.