Head of Policy & Market Development

About Okra

Okra Solar is on a mission to build affordable, renewable energy technology that creates opportunities for the underserved. Through a B2B model, we supply mesh-grid technology to last-mile energy utilities, who then energize last-mile households faster and at lower cost than with traditional mini-grids and SHS. We've deployed 2MW+ of solar PV energizing ~50,000 people, and we're scaling fast under Nigeria's $750M World Bank-funded DARES program, with equipment for another 150,000 people in manufacturing now, and new markets opening in Mozambique and Madagascar.

Why this role exists

Nigeria's DARES program created the world's first regulatory and financing framework purpose-built for mesh-grids: a differentiated grant ($300/connection vs $500 for isolated mini-grids — roughly 40% public-resource savings), and license-light treatment under 100 kW. The result is 137,000+ connections ready for grant agreements in Nigeria and regulators across the continent asking how to copy it. Right now, the frameworks that will decide whether that model spreads are being designed: World Bank ASCENT (~$5B across ~20 African countries), AfDB's SEFA, EU-backed programs, bilateral donor programs, and the national electrification plans of the markets we care about. Whether mesh-grids get recognised as a distinct technology class — or bundled invisibly under mini-grids and solar home systems — will be decided in the next 18–24 months, and it's the difference between DARES being a one-off and DARES being the playbook. Regulators from Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Namibia have already told us they're open; the World Bank, IFC, GEAPP, and SE4All were in the room when they said it. What's missing is one person who wakes up every day accountable for converting that openness into signed program documents. If mesh-grids are written into these frameworks, the whole industry pushes them to scale. This is one of the highest-leverage jobs at Okra.

What you'll own

• Mesh-grid carve-outs in the programs that set the rules. You are accountable for getting DARES-style mesh-grid inclusion — distinct technology class, differentiated grant window, license-light thresholds, fast disbursement — written into 3+ national program designs within 24 months. World Bank ASCENT is the largest single prize, but the mandate covers every pot of money that shapes rural electrification in Africa. That means tracking who is drafting what and when, and being in the room — or getting us there — before the language locks in.
• The mesh-grid alliance. Advocacy lands when it isn't one vendor lobbying. Build the coalition into something that speaks for the category: bring the other mesh-grid technology companies into a shared position, drive policy briefs (starting with the GET.invest brief) to publication with credible co-signatories, and keep developers, industry bodies, and corporate allies — Schneider Electric, CrossBoundary, First Electric, Solarworx and others — telling the same story to the same institutions.
• Creating the rooms. Don't wait for the agenda — set it. Convene the roundtables, side events and delegations where this gets decided. Our EAIF breakfast roundtable put regulators from four countries around one table with the World Bank, IFC, GEAPP and SE4All, and participants called it a black swan moment for mesh-grids; that is the bar. You run the government-to-government exchanges with REA Nigeria, who have offered to host visiting delegations, and make sure mesh-grids are on the program at the convenings our stakeholders already attend — Africa Energy Forum, the SEforALL Forum, the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum, COP.
• The evidence base. Own the definitive pack on mesh-grid economics and performance — cost per connection, uptime, consumption growth, technical differentiation from mini-grids and SHS — built from our deployed pilots and our developers' operating data. Our product and customer teams generate the proof; you turn it into the material the World Bank, IFC, rural electrification agencies (REAs) and grant funders actually work from, and make sure every institution that matters has seen it.
• The funder and REA relationship map. Be Okra's standing presence in the rooms where energy access money and rules get made: World Bank and IFC energy teams, AfDB/SEFA, EU and GET.invest program teams, GEAPP, SE4All, the donor coordination tables — and the rural electrification agencies across our priority markets, meaning REA Nigeria and its equivalents in Mozambique, Madagascar, Zambia and the markets we enter next.
• New market groundwork. As we expand over the next 2 years, lay the regulatory and partnership foundations in 2 new markets and help identify and onboard the founding country hire in each. Operational setup sits with our ops team — you make the market ready for them.

What success looks like in the first 12 months

• Early stage advocacy. Lobby ASCENT / EU / funders to get carve out of $1Bn of packets for mesh-grids in multiple target countries within 12 months.
• Early stage regulatory development. A government-backed mesh-grid sandbox or pilot window created in a new market (outside of Nigeria, Mozambique and Madagascar) with funding committed at meaningful scale (order of 10,000 connections)
• Mid - late Stage regulatory development. Mesh-grid carve-out language in 3+ national program designs within 12 months, with at least one committed by month