The World Bank has approved a $50 million funding package for a solar agricultural expansion project in Nigeria and five other African countries. The initiative aims to boost productivity, reduce post-harvest losses, and increase access to clean energy for farmers. Agriculture is a significant sector in Nigeria, employing over a third of the workforce, but inefficiencies and limited access to modern processing tools hinder growth.
The project will support the deployment of solar-powered cold rooms, refrigerators, water pumps, and grain mills across Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The implementation will be led by Clasp, a non-profit organization focused on energy efficiency and clean energy access. The World Bank-backed initiative has received strong backing from development partners, including the Rockefeller Foundation, which has committed $12 million to the scheme.
The funding is being channelled through the Productive Use Financing Facility (PUFF), an initiative operating under Mission 300, a flagship program backed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Mission 300 aims to mobilize tens of billions of dollars to provide electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of global energy poverty, with over 80% of the world’s population without access to electricity residing in the region.
PUFF is designed to bridge the affordability gap by providing grants, subsidies, and technical assistance to suppliers and distributors of solar-powered equipment. The program focuses on enabling these suppliers to reach rural and off-grid communities that are typically excluded from conventional financing. Between 2022 and 2024, PUFF completed a two-year pilot phase, supporting 24 businesses across the six participating countries.
With the pilot phase completed, the program is now transitioning into full-scale deployment, backed by fresh World Bank financing and philanthropic capital. The Rockefeller Foundation has signalled that additional resources may be deployed over time, with President Rajiv Shah stating that “there is always the ability to scale that up” and “there’ll be more resources country by country as well.” The initiative is expected to have significant implications for Nigeria’s agricultural value chain, particularly in tackling post-harvest losses driven by inadequate storage, unreliable electricity, and limited access to modern processing tools.
