$50m Solar Surge: World Bank Targets 300m Africans, Nigeria Set for Major Farming Boost
The World Bank has approved a $50 million package to accelerate solar-powered farming solutions across Nigeria and five other African nations, a move expected to reshape food production, slash post-harvest losses, and expand clean energy access for millions.
The initiative, backed by the Rockefeller Foundation and other partners, will roll out solar-powered cold rooms, refrigerators, water pumps, and grain mills across Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Rockefeller Foundation has already committed $12 million, with its president, Rajiv Shah, hinting at further expansion. “There is always the ability to scale that up… There’ll be more resources country by country as well,” Shah said during a January 15 visit to a solar-powered cold storage facility in Nairobi. His remarks reflect growing donor confidence that solar-powered agricultural infrastructure can be deployed commercially at scale across Africa’s rural and off-grid communities.
The financing is being channelled through the Productive Use Financing Facility (PUFF), a cornerstone of Mission 300, a flagship programme backed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank to mobilise tens of billions of dollars and deliver electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of global energy poverty, with 600 million people still living without reliable power.
Between 2022 and 2024, PUFF completed a pilot phase supporting 24 businesses across the six participating countries. With the pilot now concluded, the programme is transitioning into full-scale deployment backed by fresh World Bank financing and philanthropic capital.
For Nigeria, where agriculture employs more than one-third of the workforce, the expansion could be transformative. Post-harvest losses driven by poor storage and unreliable electricity continue to erode farmers’ incomes.
Solar-powered refrigeration and processing tools will allow farmers to store produce longer, access higher-value markets, and reduce waste. One pilot beneficiary, SokoFresh, already serves 19,000 farmers across East Africa with solar-powered cold storage facilities.
By scaling access to solar-powered agricultural technologies, the World Bank and its partners aim to strengthen Nigeria’s agricultural value chain, improve food security, raise farmers’ incomes, and accelerate Africa’s transition to clean energy.
The $50 million push signals a new era where solar farming is not just a climate solution, but an economic lifeline for millions across the continent.
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