Skip to content
DisOwed

Programme and Osun pilot proposal

Owned, not owed.

DisOwed builds environments in which Nigerian communities meet their own needs, own the means of doing so, and keep the value they create.

Add your nameSee the Osun pilot

The question

Poverty is counted in cash, not needs

$3.00

a day: the global poverty line measures how far a life runs on cash, not whether needs are met (World Bank, June 2025).

A family with land, water, seed and kin can be well provided for on almost no cash; a family buying every litre of water can be in need on several times the line.

Not “what will people do to earn?” but “what environment do people want to live in, and how do they build and own it?”

Work and money remain, as tools serving that environment, not as the measure of a life.

Principles

Six principles govern every decision

A proposal that fails one of them is redesigned or dropped.

  1. 1
    The reference point is internal
    Communities' own knowledge, languages and land define a good life. No other country is the model to copy.
  2. 2
    Communities define enough
    Each sets its own needs and its own measure of sufficiency in an open assembly.
  3. 3
    Ownership, not dependence
    Every solution must leave people owning it, able to maintain it, and keeping the value it creates.
  4. 4
    Commons, not debt
    Assets are held by the community. What users pay returns to their own fund, never to a shareholder.
  5. 5
    Whoever profits carries the full cycle
    A business that profits from a product or resource is responsible for it from extraction to disposal.
  6. 6
    Measure the environment, not only income
    Success is a healthier, more self-sustaining environment for life.

The programme

Six commons, built community by community

Each is given into community ownership and repaid in kind, so no household carries debt and no value leaves the community. Each community chooses the order; energy comes first because the others depend on it.

Energy

Power from a community-owned grid

Repaid in kind: Users pay into their own community fund; surplus funds the next commons

Seed and food

Local, open-pollinated seed from a community seed bank

Repaid in kind: Seed returned at harvest, more than was taken, so the bank grows

Water

Community boreholes, rainwater harvesting, protected springs

Repaid in kind: Labour on upkeep; commercial users pay, households do not

Materials

Collection and return points in every community

Repaid in kind: Packaging returned for deposit or credit; recovered material feeds local makers

Land and shelter

Secure community land tenure; building with local earth, timber and fibre

Repaid in kind: Rotating collective labour on each other's homes, as in traditional work groups

Knowledge

Learning in mother tongue; a living record of local knowledge

Repaid in kind: Each learner teaches the next; each solution is documented for others

Every commons runs the same loop

  1. 1 The commons gives
    Solar, seed, a water point or building materials, free, to a household.
  2. 2 The household uses it
    Its own need is met first, with no cash debt.
  3. 3 Surplus returns in kind
    Spare power to the grid, seed at harvest, materials to collection.
  4. 4 It serves the next household
    The commons is larger than before.
Money enters only at the edges
Nothing is sold on credit. What a household receives is repaid from what it produces.

InOne grant funds the first round.

InOutsiders buy surplus energy, water and materials.

Never outTo a shareholder.

Roadmap

One programme, four phases

Funds are released by phase, and each phase opens only when its gate is met, so funders never carry more than one phase of risk at a time.

  1. Phase 0Months 0–6
    Prepare
    Register the trust and company; select the community; assembly vote; anchor customer signed; two written quotes; mini-grid permit and DARES applications filed.
    Gate A: quotes, anchor letter and community vote in hand; licence and grant granted.
  2. Phase 1Months 6–24
    Energy commons
    Build, connect and operate the mini-grid; train local technicians; quarterly public reports; first independent audit.
    Gate B: income covers running cost six months in a row; battery reserve on schedule.
  3. Phase 2Years 2–4
    Next commons, next communities
    The pilot community adds its chosen second commons, funded partly from energy surplus. Communities train communities across Osun and two more states.
    Gate C: results hold without DisOwed staff present.
  4. Phase 3Year 4 on
    National and beyond
    Federal recognition of the commons; farmers' seed rights and producer responsibility enforced; a federation of commons across Nigeria and Africa.

This raise covers Phases 0 and 1: the Osun pilot.

Where it starts

The Osun energy commons

A community-owned solar mini-grid in one community in Osun State. Energy goes first because it is the largest cost, the most fundable, and the one the other commons depend on: pumping water, storing seed, running a school.

US$350
per connection: the federal DARES grant (REA)
₦300–400
per kWh, already paid on rural mini-grids (AEDC via allAfrica, Aug 2026)
2025
Osun's Electricity Market Regulatory Law encourages mini-grids and solar (Nairametrics)
4.4m
people: Osun's projected population (NPC/NBS via City Population)

Mini-grids already work here: the Rural Electrification Agency has commissioned a 510kWp solar mini-grid serving four communities in Ife South (Leadership). Osun has passed its own electricity law and is preparing to take over regulation from NERC (TheFact Daily, October 2026); until that transfer, the grid is permitted by NERC under the Mini-Grid Regulations 2023.

One shared grid, not a panel on every roof
One fenced, watched site is far easier to protect than hundreds of roofs, and collectively owned equipment cannot be sold by one household. A home system costs about US$640–900 (PVPRO, Mar 2026), against US$177–1,250 per grid connection after the DARES grant. Maintenance is pooled and done by trained local technicians.
Five tests for the first community
Fail any one: not funded. Size is set by survey: 100, 250 or 500 connections.
  1. No reliable grid supply today
  2. An anchor customer signs a letter of intent to buy power
  3. The community assembly votes to own and govern the grid
  4. Written endorsement from the traditional ruler and local government
  5. A secure plant site, with land rights obtainable

The ask

Net to raise for the first commons

Ranges come from published Nigerian benchmarks. Written supplier quotes in Phase 0 replace each range with one figure before any build money is drawn.

ConnectionsCapital cost (US$)DARES grant (US$)Net to raise (US$)Net to raise (₦)Running cost per year (US$)
10052,700–160,000−35,00020,000–127,300₦26.6m–169.2m8,550
250131,750–400,000−87,50046,550–314,800₦61.9m–418.4m21,375
500263,500–800,000−175,00090,800–627,300₦120.7m–833.8m42,750

All figures include US$2,300 site engagement (World Bank). Capital cost low is the SEforALL Nigeria average of US$527 per connection; high is the World Bank median of US$1,600. Running cost is SEforALL’s US$85.50 per connection per year. Exchange rate ₦1,329.16 per US$ (CBN, 2 October 2026). Contingency, insurance and battery replacement are not yet included.

Break-even needs an anchor customer
Each connection must buy 23.7 kWh a month at ₦400/kWh, or 31.6 kWh at ₦300/kWh, to cover running costs. Nigerian mini-grid customers used 9.5–30 kWh a month (AMDA). At the low end income covers about 30% of running costs; at the high end about 127%. The gap is closed by daytime productive use and a signed anchor customer.
Funded from inside as it grows
Sources in order of priority.
  1. 1. Communities themselves. Through the collective savings tradition and the commons funds that surplus builds up.
  2. 2. The diaspora. Nigerians abroad sent US$21.8 billion home in 2025 (CBN via Vanguard). A diaspora fund lets them pay for a grid, a seed bank or a school in their own home community.
  3. 3. Producers, by law. Collection under the plastic waste regulations is producer-funded and routed through community collection points.
  4. 4. Anchor buyers. Of surplus energy, water and recovered materials.
  5. 5. Public grants. Such as DARES, where the terms do not compromise community control.
  6. 6. Outside grants, last. For first rounds and independent research only, accepted only on the community's terms.

Governance

Two entities keep the assets local

The community assembly elects stewards who sit on the trust board. Accounts are published every quarter, and no single person can move the community fund.

Community assembly
Elects stewards to the trust board; proposes the tariff.
DisOwed Trust
Incorporated trustees under CAMA 2020 Part F. Holds the assets for the community; cannot distribute profit.
Community energy company
Owned by the trust; holds the mini-grid permit, runs the grid and applies for the DARES grant.

Named people before any funder proceeds

RoleResponsibilityName
Chair of the trustAccountable to funders and the communityTo be named
Project director, OsunDelivery, partners, state relationsTo be named
Engineering and installation partnerDesign, build, warrantyTo be named (two written quotes)
Finance and reporting leadAccounts, quarterly reports, auditTo be named
Community liaisonAssemblies, stewards, local trustChosen by the community
Independent auditorAnnual financial and impact auditTo be appointed

Risks

Fourteen risks, each with an answer

Failures are reported as fully as successes: a public quarterly report, raw data to funders, and an independent audit each year.

Get involved

Back the Osun pilot

Add your name to show funders and the state that people stand behind it. Pledge what you would give when the pilot opens; nothing is charged until the Trust is registered and the first gate is met.

People backing DisOwed
0
Pledged for the pilot
No pledges yet
Add your name
Join the supporters, and pledge in naira, dollars, pounds or euros if you wish.
Add my name
Nominate a community
Know a community in Osun that could own its own solar grid? Tell us, against the five tests.
Nominate
Partner or fund
Grant makers, diaspora groups, anchor customers, engineers and government: work with us.
Get in touch

The anthem · call and response

Who holds the light?
We do!
Who holds the land?
We do!
Who builds tomorrow?
We do, we do!
What are we?
DisOwed!