- Bboxx and CreditChek have announced a strategic partnership to provide up to 17.5 million Nigerians with access to renewable energy.
- The initiative is expected to have a significant impact on underserved and off-grid communities, advancing both clean energy adoption and financial inclusion for millions of households across the country.
Bboxx and CreditChek have announced a strategic partnership to provide up to 17.5 million Nigerians with access to renewable energy for the first time.
The collaboration is part of the World Bank–funded Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project, a USD $750 million initiative designed to expand clean electricity access across Nigeria.
Under the partnership, CreditChek will deploy its AI-enabled credit infrastructure to enhance Bboxx’s underwriting capacity. Meanwhile, Bboxx will oversee the sourcing, distribution, and financing of solar home systems, leveraging CreditChek’s tools for income verification, credit history assessment, and fraud detection to ensure responsible lending and sustainable energy access.
“This will help us channel our resources into activities with the highest return whilst getting specialised support on important capabilities which are not our core,” the Chief Credit Officer adds. “CreditChek, with its numerous integrations in the Nigerian market and AI capabilities, enables us to plug in and leap forward.”
The initiative is expected to have a significant impact on underserved and off-grid communities, advancing both clean energy adoption and financial inclusion for millions of households across the country.
In May 2025, Bboxx was also selected to participate in a $300 million solar program under the DARES initiative. The company announced its inclusion on May 14, 2025, as a participant in the Stand-Alone Solar Systems (SAS) window of the program, which is being implemented by Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
The DARES program, short for Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up, seeks to accelerate the rollout of off-grid solar solutions in regions lacking reliable electricity. With nearly 90 million Nigerians still without access to stable power, the program represents the largest performance-based solar grant ever launched in the country.
The SAS window allocates $100 million for solar home systems, $150 million for solar business systems targeting small and medium enterprises, and $50 million for productive-use equipment, with the goal of reaching 2.7 million households and micro-businesses.
Furthermore, CreditChek, founded between 2021 and 2022 and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, is a fast-growing fintech startup building Africa’s next-generation credit infrastructure.
The company’s platform provides robust tools for credit assessment and reporting, enabling financial institutions to evaluate creditworthiness and extend services to previously underserved populations.
Through initiatives like its partnership with Bboxx, CreditChek is helping to close the financial and energy access gaps across Nigeria.