The World Bank has approved a $50 million financing package to expand solar-powered agricultural solutions in Nigeria and five other African countries, in a move aimed at boosting productivity, reducing post-harvest losses and widening access to clean energy.
The initiative, supported by development partners including the Rockefeller Foundation, targets long-standing challenges across Africa’s agricultural value chain, particularly poor storage facilities, unreliable electricity supply and limited access to modern processing equipment.
Agriculture employs more than one-third of Nigeria’s workforce, but inefficiencies linked to energy shortages continue to undermine farmers’ incomes and national food security. The new investment is expected to address these gaps by scaling solar-based technologies that improve storage, irrigation and processing.
According to a Bloomberg report, the funding will support the deployment of solar-powered cold rooms, refrigerators, water pumps and grain mills in Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Implementation will be led by Clasp, a Washington DC-based non-profit organisation focused on advancing energy efficiency and clean energy access in emerging markets.
Officials involved in the programme say the initiative has attracted strong interest from development partners and could be expanded further as implementation progresses at the country level. The Rockefeller Foundation, which has already committed $12 million to the project, has indicated that additional funding may be made available over time.
Speaking during a visit to a solar-powered cold storage facility operated by SokoFresh in Nairobi on January 15, Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah said the programme has room to grow. He noted that resources could be scaled up on a country-by-country basis as results begin to materialise.
Shah explained that the foundation’s role is to support innovative projects that can later be expanded by governments, the World Bank and other partners to achieve broader impact.
The funding is being channelled through the Productive Use Financing Facility (PUFF), an initiative under Mission 300 — a flagship programme jointly backed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank. 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 per cent of people worldwide without access to electricity. About 600 million people in the region still lack reliable power, a shortfall that continues to constrain economic growth and productivity, especially for farmers and small businesses.
PUFF is designed to close the affordability 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 often excluded from traditional financing.
Between 2022 and 2024, the programme completed a two-year pilot phase, supporting 24 businesses across the six participating countries. With the pilot now concluded, PUFF is transitioning into full-scale deployment, backed by fresh World Bank funding and additional philanthropic support.
