The payment problem nobody had solved
Mini-grids are small power stations, usually solar, that supply electricity to a single rural community. They are one of the fastest ways to bring electricity to rural Nigeria, because they reach places the national grid has not reached and may not reach for many years. But producing electricity and getting paid for it are two very different problems.
In many of these rural communities, the way people pay has not kept up with the power itself. Places to buy tokens are few and far apart. Phone signal is weak. Cash is collected without proper records. So the companies running the mini-grids produce electricity they cannot fully collect payment for, and families go without power simply because buying it is too difficult or too far away.
The apps people already know were built for city customers on the national grid. They were not made for weak signal, small phones, or the way rural power companies work. So we made a clear choice: RanaWallet serves rural communities on mini-grids, and nothing else. We do not sell national-grid electricity, airtime, or general banking. Every decision we make is tested against one person: a parent in a rural community, with a small phone, who needs the lights on tonight.