Power the 50 Million Nigerians That the National Grid Will Never Reach

Nigeria's national grid extension programme has been ongoing for 40 years and remains incomplete. The communities left behind are those where population density and per-household willingness to pay make grid extension uneconomical. Minigrid companies have tried and many have failed, usually because of diesel cost volatility, willingness-to-pay mismatches, and inadequate maintenance networks. Your challenge is to design a solar-plus-storage minigrid business model for Nigerian communities of 200 to 1,000 households that is financially viable without permanent subsidy. It must include a tariff design that low-income households can afford, a local operator training model, and a maintenance and spare parts supply chain. Submit a business model design (max 12 pages) including: the system sizing and technology spec, tariff design and household affordability analysis, operator training model, maintenance supply chain, financial projections over 10 years, and an approach to handling the community payment discipline challenge. Judging criteria: 35% financial model credibility without subsidy dependence, 30% tariff and affordability design, 20% operations and maintenance model, 15% community payment design.