World Bank Approves $50m Solar Agriculture Funding for Nigeria, Five African States

News in brief:

-The World Bank-backed programme will deploy solar-powered cold storage, irrigation and processing equipment across six African countries, including Nigeria.

-Nigeria is expected to benefit through reduced post-harvest losses, improved farm productivity and expanded rural energy access.

The World Bank has approved $50 million, equivalent to about ₦77 billion, in new financing to expand solar-powered agricultural solutions in Nigeria and five other African countries. The move is aimed at boosting farm productivity, cutting post-harvest losses and widening access to clean energy.

This funding will support the rollout of solar-powered cold rooms, refrigeration units, water pumps and grain mills across Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to information cited by Bloomberg.

Implementation of the programme will be led by CLASP, a Washington, DC-based non-profit organisation that focuses on energy efficiency and clean energy access in emerging markets.

Rockefeller Foundation Signals Further Funding

Development partners backing the initiative have expressed confidence in its scalability as implementation accelerates at the country level. The Rockefeller Foundation, which has already committed $12 million, around ₦18.5 billion, has indicated that additional funding could be mobilised over time.

“There is always the ability to scale that up,” President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rajiv Shah, said on January 15 during a visit to a solar-powered cold storage facility operated by SokoFresh in Nairobi.

“There will be more resources country by country as well,” he added.

Shah explained that the foundation prioritises financing innovative projects that governments, multilateral institutions and development partners can later expand at scale, reflecting growing confidence in the commercial viability of solar-powered agricultural infrastructure across Africa.

Mission 300 and the PUFF framework explained

The financing is being channelled through the Productive Use Financing Facility, known as PUFF, an initiative under Mission 300, a flagship programme supported by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Mission 300 aims to mobilise tens of billions of dollars to provide electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the global epicentre of energy poverty, accounting for more than 80% of the world’s population without access to electricity. An estimated 600 million people in the region still lack reliable power, limiting economic growth and productivity for farmers and small businesses.

PUFF addresses this gap by offering grants, subsidies and technical assistance to suppliers and distributors of solar-powered equipment, enabling them to reach rural and off-grid communities that are often excluded from conventional financing.

Nigeria’s Agriculture Sector Set for Impact

Between 2022 and 2024, PUFF completed a two-year pilot phase, supporting 24 businesses across the six participating countries. With the pilot phase concluded, the programme is now transitioning into full-scale deployment, backed by the new World Bank funding and philanthropic capital.

In Nigeria, the expansion of PUFF-supported solutions is expected to strengthen the agricultural value chain by tackling post-harvest losses linked to poor storage, unreliable electricity supply and limited access to modern processing technologies.

Agriculture employs more than one-third of Nigeria’s workforce, yet inefficiencies continue to erode farmers’ incomes and threaten food supply stability.

One of the pilot beneficiaries, SokoFresh, currently serves around 19,000 farmers across East Africa through its solar-powered cold storage facilities.

The technology allows farmers to store produce for longer periods, reduce waste and access higher-value markets. By scaling access to solar-powered agricultural technologies in Nigeria and other participating countries, the World Bank and its partners aim to improve food security, enhance rural livelihoods and accelerate Africa’s transition to clean and sustainable energy.