Economy
REA, RMI Launch Initiative to Unlock Productivity in Nigeria’s Agric Sector
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and RMI, an independent nonprofit organisation focused on transforming the global energy system, have launched the Energizing Agriculture Programme (EAP), which aims to boost the country’s GDP, accelerate renewable energy drive, and unlock productivity in the agriculture sector.
The EAP is a three-year initiative with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), with funding from The Rockefeller Foundation, that aims to stimulate the use of mini-grid electricity in productive agricultural uses by focusing on enabling market-led solutions and breaking the silos separating electrification and agricultural development.
Over the next three years, the EAP initiative will foster a pipeline of agriculture-energy projects that demonstrate the impact of collaborative development efforts across the energy and agriculture sectors. Across these activities, the EAP is designed to ensure local ownership of solutions and scaling by partnering widely and sharing insights broadly.
As part of the GEAPP’s broader efforts to bring reliable electricity to 1 billion people by the decade’s end, avert 4 billion tons of greenhouse gases and enable 150 million green jobs that generate inclusive economic growth, the EAP will build on existing agriculture and electrification initiatives in Nigeria and then accelerate the deployment and adoption of the most effective solutions for rural communities across the country.
The programme will achieve this by bringing together teams of local partners to validate commercially led business models and demonstrate agricultural appliances and scale-proven solutions.
Experts estimate that Nigeria’s agricultural sector, which provides nearly one-quarter of the country’s GDP and employs two-thirds of the labour force, has the potential to generate $40 billion in exports. Using electricity to power opportunities like these can drive a virtuous cycle for rural development by increasing incomes and community resilience and improving the financial performance of the mini-grid utility.
Speaking on this, the Minister of State for Power, Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba, said the federal government has been very deliberate about leveraging strategic partnerships for optimum impact in off-grid communities across Nigeria.
“I am confident that the EAP is deliberately designed to open a whole new world of possibilities to farmers and artisans in the agricultural sector.
“As the renewable energy space improves yearly, we have continued to keep a keen eye on the deployment of programs and solutions geared toward socioeconomic impact in unserved and underserved communities across Nigeria. The EAP is one of those programmes.”
Adding his input, Dr Mohammed Mahmoud Abubakar, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said, “This programme encourages the productive use of energy to deepen our objective of organizing and managing the agricultural sector in Nigeria. Leveraging renewable energy technologies for productive use in off-grid communities greatly helps to strengthen the production capacity of the average Nigerian farmer in rural communities.
“The EAP is in line with our mandate at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development toward strengthening agriculture and rural development across the country.”
“Catalyzing the productive use appliance market is a critical priority on the current REA strategy roadmap, designed to increase economic opportunities in off-grid communities. Beyond providing electricity to the unserved and the underserved, the ultimate goal for the REA is to make sure that the electricity impacts the communities both socially and economically, and agriculture is the chief activity that supports livelihoods in almost all rural communities. That is why we are going beyond powering residential communities to also focus on energizing their agricultural clusters as well,” said Mr Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, managing director/CEO of REA.
“Addressing the energy deficit challenge in sub-Saharan Africa is fundamental to unlocking agricultural productivity, new income-generating activities, and acceleration of global decarbonization efforts,” said Mr Justin Locke, managing director of RMI’s Global South Programme.
“The EAP’s potential to electrify agricultural loads can catalyze scaling the adoption of decentralized renewable energy systems and spur local community development,” he added.
Supporting demand, jobs and small and medium enterprise growth by increasing productive agricultural use at mini-grid sites is critical to uplifting low-income communities in Nigeria, and the EAP will directly contribute to these efforts by deploying productive use appliances in rural communities and providing business models to scale similar interventions at mini-grid sites throughout Nigeria. Equipment like electric grain mills and cold storage can plug directly into existing agricultural value chains once electricity is available.
“Despite incredible advances in renewable energy technologies, we haven’t seen these innovations spread at the speed and scale needed to reach the communities most in need, especially in the agricultural sector,” said Mr Joseph Nganga, executive director for Africa at the GEAPP.
“The EAP will bring together farmer organizations, private agricultural companies, donors, equipment manufacturers and governments to surface innovations and embed them within existing value chains. If we are successful, some of these solutions will have wide uptake, helping to catalyze more equitable and sustainable economic development,” he said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Five securities caused the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange to experience a setback of 0.64 per cent on Monday, February 2.
During the first trading session of February 2026, FrieslandCampinaWamco Nigeria Plc shrank by N4.46 to end at N63.54 per unit versus the previous session’s N68.00 per unit, as Okitipupa Plc depreciated by N3.83 to close at N230.77 per share versus last Friday’s N234.60 per share.
Further, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) dropped 50 Kobo to sell at N40.00 per unit compared with the previous closing price of N40.50 per unit, UBN Property Plc dipped by 21 Kobo to N1.99 per share from N2.20 per share, and Acorn Petroleum Plc lost 3 Kobo to end at N1.35 per unit versus N1.38 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation went down by N13.98 billion to settle at N2.158 trillion, in contrast to the previous value of N2.171 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) contracted by 23.35 points to settle at 3,606.76 points compared with last Friday’s closing value of 3,630.11 points.
Amid the loss, Geo-Fluids Plc managed to finish green after it chalked up 9 Kobo to sell at N6.84 per share versus the N5.75 per share it ended in the last trading day.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors surged by 1,238.5 per cent to 3.9 million units from 287,618 units, the value of securities increased by 1,075.2 per cent to N36.0 million from N3.1 million, and the number of deals soared by 90.5 per cent to 40 deals from 21 deals.
At the close of trades, CSCS Plc remained the most traded stock by value (year-to-date) with 15.4 million units valued at N623.9 million, followed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 1.7 million units worth N110.2 million, and Geo-Fluids Plc with 10.6 million units sold for N69.9 million.
CSCS Plc was also the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 15.4 million units traded for N623.9 million, trailed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 10.6 million units worth N69.9 million, and Mass Telecom Innovation Plc with 10.1 million units transacted for N4.1 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Naira dropped against the United States Dollar in the the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Monday, February 2 by N3.81 or 0.27 per cent to N1,390.36/$1 from the N1,386.55/$1 it traded last Friday.
This was driven by stronger demand for forex at the official market, which outweighed to what was available to meet customers’ needs. But the local currency remained within the expected trading range.
In the same market window, the domestic currency further appreciated against the Pound Sterling during the session by N6.72 to close at N1,899.51/£1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,906.23/£1 and improved against the Euro by N7.70 to trade at N1,644.52/€1 versus the previous trading day’s value of N1,652.22/€1.
In the parallel market, the exchange rate of the Nigerian Naira to its American counterpart remained unchanged yesterday at N1,465/$1 and at the GTBank FX counter, it also maintained stability at N1,419/$1.
The Naira is expected to remain relatively stable in the coming days, boosted by stronger FX liquidity, enhanced price discovery, and a gradual restoration of offshore investor confidence while Nigeria’s external reserves, which provide the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the capacity to defend the Naira and stabilise the foreign exchange market, have continued to grow steadily.
Updated data showed that Nigeria’s gross external reserves printed at $46.18 billion as of January 29, 2026, reflecting an addition of $62.40 million.
As for the cryptocurrency market, it was bullish after a sharp weekend sell-off while a resurgent US Dollar index, which has logged its strongest two-day gain in nine months, threatened to keep gains in check.
Expectations that US Federal Reserve chair nominee, Mr Kevin Warsh, will be cautious on interest-rate cuts, along with upcoming US jobs data, are seen as potential drivers of further Dollar strength.
The biggest gainer for the session was Cardano (ADA), which rose by 6.2 per cent to trade at $0.2976, Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 5.5 per cent to $2,319.80, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 5.3 per cent to $0.1066, Binance Coin (BNB) gained 4.8 per cent to sell for $776.00, and Solana (SOL) added 4.6 per cent to sell at $103.75.
In addition, Litecoin (LTC) improved by 4.5 per cent to trade at $59.95, Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 3.6 per cent to $78,445.62, and Ripple (XRP) expanded by 3.4 per cent to $1.60, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited managed to finish in the green territory on Monday after it marginally closed higher by 0.01 per cent.
The last minute escape from the bears was triggered by the gains posted by large-cap equities like Zenith Bank, Aradel Holdings and others, offsetting the losses recorded by GTCO, Oando, First Holdco and others.
According to data obtained by Business Post, only 29 stocks ended on the gainers’ chart, while 44 equities landed on the losers’ table, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
Universal Insurance rose by 10.00 per cent to sell for N1.32, Premier Paints appreciated by 10.00 per cent to N11.00, DAAR Communications improved by 9.93 per cent to N1.55, RT Briscoe increased by 9.92 per cent to N8.64, and Morison Industries advanced by 9.91 per cent to N10.98.
On the flip side, Omatek declined by 10.00 per cent to N2.70, Union Homes REIT declined by 9.96 per cent to N85.40, AXA Mansard shrank by 9.94 per cent to N14.31, Deap Capital decreased by 9.90 per cent to N8.46, and C&I Leasing moderated by 9.80 per cent to N6.90.
On the first trading session of this week, market participants bought and sold 762.8 million shares valued at N18.4 billion in 55,374 deals compared with the 687.4 million shares worth N15.0 billion traded in 41,553 deals last Friday, a spike in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 10.97 per cent, 22.67 per cent, and 33.26 per cent, respectively.
Tantalizers ended the day as the most active stock with 88.5 million units sold for N329.4 million, Zenith Bank traded 40.2 million units worth N2.9 billion, Veritas Kapital transacted 39.2 million units valued at N92.1 million, Universal Insurance exchanged 29.3 million units for N38.1 million, and First Holdco transacted 27.6 million units worth N1.1 billion.
The sectorial performance yesterday showed that the mood of investors was in the sell region despite the slight growth recorded by Customs Street, as only the energy index closed in green, rising by 2.00 per cent.
The insurance counter was down by 1.99 per cent, the banking industry depleted by 0.64 per cent, the consumer goods shrank by 0.37 per cent, and the industrial goods retreated by 0.08 per cent.
When the first trading day of February 2026 ended on Monday, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 14.23 points to 165,384.63 points from 165,370.40 points, while the market capitalization chalked up N9 billion to finish at N106.162 trillion compared with the previous session’s N106.153 trillion.
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