2013 Tutu Fellow Danladi Verheijen has shared that oil giant Shell has bought the Daystar Power Group, a company backed by Verod in 2019. Verod Capital Management is a private equity firm that 2022 Fellow, Eric Idiahi co-founded with Danladi. As a result of their collaboration, Daystar Power has evolved to become the leading solar player in Nigeria.
Daystar provides off-grid power to commercial and industrial clients in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, offering solar and hybrid power solutions with battery storage. It has 300 power installations with solar capacity of 32 megawatts.
With the acquisition, It now has ambitious pan-African goals. It will continue to operate autonomously as a stand-alone business from it's headquarters in Lagos. Danladi said that with Shell’s support and backing, we plan to increase installed capacity to 400MW by 2025 in West Africa, and expand into Eastern and Southern Africa. Another important goal is to accelerate solar energy adoption across sub-Saharan Africa.
Before co-founding Verod, Danladi was a Vice President at Citibank Nigeria where he led corporate finance and investment banking transactions and also had responsibility for Citibank’s equity investment portfolio. Prior to that, he held roles at Ocean and Oil Holdings and at McKinsey & Company.
Eric Idahi has also led several notable mergers, acquisitions and investments in the technology, financial services, education and pharmaceutical sectors.
Shell is one of the most influential oil producers in Africa, but the Daystar purchase is its first renewable power acquisition on the continent, underscoring a mandate to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. As part of Shell, Daystar has expressed its eagerness to play an even bigger role in Africa’s energy transition.
You can read more at Reuters or at the Daystar website.
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