Over years of running results-based finance programs for mini-grid projects across Africa, connection verification often came up as a bottleneck for solar companies participating in the programs. The amount of time between connections being turned on and payment disbursement to companies was often months, sometimes over a year. For small and medium-sized solar companies, this delay makes an already challenging cash-flow scenario worse; while they need to pay for solar equipment and the operational production costs upfront, payment comes much later.

To overcome this barrier, Odyssey launched a remote verification tool. The tool integrates with all major payment CRMs. Instead of hiring Independent Verification Agencies (IVAs), solar companies can now prove that connections are live with an automated process. Now that the tool has been live for over a year, we have seen disbursement rates decrease dramatically, from an average of 12-16 weeks to 2-3 weeks.

Key Learning Points:

• Overview of the cash-flow challenges that small and medium sized micro-grid developers face
• Understanding of results-based finance payment schemes and business models
• Tools to alleviate cash-flow challenges and have accurate, standardized data about micro-grid performance

Speaker: