In its bid to help small businesses and entrepreneurs to grow and flourish, the Lift Above Poverty Organization LAPO Microfinance Bank disburses N21.72 billion, a development capable of lifting the beneficiaries above the struggling limits
By Edu Abade
The Live Above Poverty Organization Microfinance Bank (LAPO MFB) has financed 768,488 clean-energy products worth over ₦21.72 billion since 2017, putting solar power, clean cooking and alternative mobility solutions within reach of households, traders and small businesses struggling with energy costs and unreliable power supply.
The scale of the intervention means the financing is increasingly translating into practical uses: Solar freezers helping traders preserve perishable goods, solar lighting enabling artisans to work beyond daylight hours, and solar home systems providing households with basic electricity services.
The initiative, operated under the bank’s Environmental Green Clean Lending Initiative, has expanded beyond basic solar lighting to include solar home systems, refrigerators and freezers, clean cook stoves, gas cylinders, CNG-powered tricycles and other clean-energy products.
Head of Marketing and Communications, LAPO MFB, Oluremi Akande, said the bank’s focus was on ensuring that access to clean-energy products produces measurable benefits for customers.
“The real impact of clean energy is seen in what people are able to do with it. When a trader can preserve more goods, an artisan can work for longer hours, or a household can access reliable lighting, the product becomes more than an energy solution. It becomes an enabler of livelihoods, productivity and better quality of life. Our focus is on making these possibilities more accessible through appropriate financing.”
The portfolio of LAPO MFB now includes over 20 varieties of solar products, including solar lamps, fans, radios, refrigerators, freezers and complete solar home solutions comprising inverters, batteries and panels. The bank also finances clean cook stoves, gas cylinders and cleaner mobility solutions.
The products are supplied through partnerships with clean-energy companies including d.light, Sun King, Oando Gas, SALPHA Energy, Lumos, Koolboks, Bluetti Energy Nigeria, Burn Stove Nigeria and Spiro Mobility Solutions.
The partnerships have enabled the bank to connect financing with products designed for specific household and business needs, while reducing the burden of paying the full cost upfront. Individuals, artisans, cooperatives, groups and small businesses can acquire the products and repay over time.
The programme has also expanded beyond individual purchases. In 2023, LAPO MFB, in partnership with Bluetti, supported the donation of 50 E-40 Solar Home Systems valued at ₦5.225 million.
In 2025, the bank partnered with Spiro Mobility Solutions to extend its clean-energy financing into electric mobility. It also secured a ₦450 million, 36-month blended-finance facility under the Green for Access First Loss Facility to support lending for e-mobility, solar-powered cooling, productive-use solar and standalone solar systems for healthcare.
The growth of the programme points to an expanding role for finance in Nigeria’s clean-energy market, particularly for consumers and small businesses that may otherwise struggle to meet the upfront cost of energy equipment.
Cumulatively, the bank disbursed ₦21.72 billion and 768,488 products were sold, which is the growth of a loan portfolio, a development that show how financing is helping move clean-energy technology into homes, shops and workshops, where its impact is reflected in preserved goods, increased productive hours, household energy access and cleaner mobility.
