“Where There’s No Light, There’s No Enjoyment”: How Solar Power Revived Olokoto

For over 30 years, Matthew Oladayo has called Olokoto home. As the community/youth leader and a business owner in the community, he has witnessed the painful realities of life without electricity, where hope fades with every passing day, and development feels like a distant dream.

During those decades, Matthew ran a medicine business and other ventures, but progress was slow, almost impossible. The absence of electricity had paralysed the community.

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“It has been up to 30 years since I have lived in Olokoto. During that period, our businesses were not thriving because there was no electricity. You know, when our children grew older, they said there is no electricity in this place, there’s nothing to do here and that they would like to go to the village where they could enjoy themselves. You know where there’s no light, there is no enjoyment.”

This absence of light didn’t just affect business, it cost lives. One tragic night, a man in the community fell critically ill around midnight. With no electricity to store medicine or power medical equipment, there was little anyone could do.

“There are some medicines that require the presence of electricity for them to be of use in treating someone. So, as long as there is no light, it won’t be possible. The next option would be to run to the Igbeti community close to us for treatment, where there is electricity. So, there was nothing we could do other than to hurry and take him to Igbeti. But before we got to Igbeti, the man had already passed on.”

Stories like this were not rare. The lack of electricity had hollowed out Olokoto. Young people left. Families moved away. Businesses collapsed due to poor patronage. It was a vicious cycle – no light meant no growth, and no growth meant people kept leaving.

“Many other things like this happened. A majority of the people here left to go live in towns, so our businesses were not moving well because of the lack of people/patronage.”

But everything changed when solar electricity came to Olokoto through Havenhill Synergy. The reaction from the community was instant and emotional.

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“When the solar electricity came, I can’t say I was the only one, throughout the whole village, we were just celebrating, especially the children. They were celebrating as if someone had gifted them a huge amount of money. People were going from street to street shouting ‘hallelujah, God has brought us something good’.”

With light, life returned. Businesses reopened. Children laughed and played late into the evening. And more importantly, people began to move back, not away.

“So even our businesses have improved. I am very happy. This is the first time I got something regarding my business that made me happy. So as the solar electricity came, people started moving here from everywhere – from Igbeti and other places. So everything has turned out well. It has made us very happy, even happier than we expected to be.”

Electricity does more than power bulbs – it powers communities. It attracts investment, restores dignity, and saves lives. For Olokoto, solar power wasn’t just infrastructure, it was the return of hope.

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