Pecohub The World Bank has approved $50 million to expand solar-powered agricultural solutions in Nigeria and five other African countries, aiming to boost productivity, cut post-harvest losses and expand clean energy access.
The development was disclosed through programme updates involving the World Bank and its partners, including the Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg reports.
The funding 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, with implementation led by Clasp, a Washington DC-based non-profit organisation focused on energy efficiency and clean energy access.
The World Bank-backed initiative has attracted strong backing from development partners, with officials indicating that the programme could expand further as country-level implementation gathers pace.
The Rockefeller Foundation, which has already committed $12 million to the scheme, has signalled that additional resources may be deployed over time.
The financing is being channelled through the Productive Use Financing Facility (PUFF), an initiative operating under Mission 300, a flagship programme backed 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.
