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 Dipo Olowookere
The local stock market firmed up by 1.13 per cent on Friday as appetite for Nigerian stocks remained strong.
Investors reacted well to the 2026 budget presentation of President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly yesterday, especially because of the more realistic crude oil benchmark of $64 per barrel compared with the ambitious $75 per barrel for 2025. This year, prices have been between $60 and $65 per barrel.
Business Post observed profit-taking in the commodity and energy sectors as they respectively shed 0.14 per cent and 0.03 per cent.
But, bargain-hunting in the others sustained the positive run, with the consumer goods index up by 3.82 per cent.
Further, the industrial goods space appreciated by 1.46 per cent, the banking counter improved by 0.08 per cent, and the insurance industry gained 0.04 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 1,694.33 points to 152,057.38 points from 150,363.05 points and the market capitalisation chalked up N1.080 trillion to finish at N96.937 trillion compared with Thursday’s closing value of N95.857 trillion.
A total of 34 shares ended on the advancers’ chart, while 24 were on the laggards’ log, representing a positive market breadth index and bullish investor sentiment.
Austin Laz gained 10.00 per cent to close at N2.42, Union Dicon also jumped 10.00 per cent to N6.60, Tantalizers increased by 9.80 per cent to N2.69, Aluminium Extrusion improved by 9.78 per cent to N12.35, and Champion Breweries grew by 9.71 per cent to N16.95.
Conversely, Sovereign Trust Insurance dipped by 7.42 per cent to N3.87, Royal Exchange lost 6.84 per cent to trade at N1.77, Omatek slipped by 6.84 per cent to N1.09, Eunisell depreciated by 5.88 per cent to N80.00, and Eterna dropped 5.63 per cent to close at N28.50.
Yesterday, traders transacted 1.5 billion units worth N21.8 billion in 25,667 deals compared with the 839.8 million units sold for N32.8 billion in 23,211 deals in the preceding session, showing a surge in the trading volume by 76.61 per cent, an uptick in the number of deals by 10.58 per cent, and a shrink in the trading value by 33.54 per cent.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Three stocks stretched the bearish run of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 1.21 per cent on Friday, December 19, with the market capitalisation giving up N26.01 billion to close at N2.121 billion compared with the N2.147 trillion it ended a day earlier, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropping 43.47 points to 3,546.41 points from 3,589.88 points.
The trio of FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, and NASD Plc overpowered the gains printed by four other securities.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc lost N6.00 to sell at N54.00 per unit versus N60.00 per unit, NASD Plc shrank by N3.50 to N58.50 per share from N55.00 per share, and CSCS Plc depleted by N2.91 to N33.87 per unit from N36.78 per unit.
On the flip side, Air Liquide Plc gained N1.01 to close at N13.00 per share versus N11.99 per share, Golden Capital Plc appreciated by 70 Kobo to N7.68 per unit from N6.98 per unit, Geo-Fluids Plc added 39 Kobo to sell at N5.50 per share versus N5.11 per share, and IPWA Plc rose by 8 Kobo to 85 Kobo per unit from 77 Kobo per unit.
During the trading day, market participants traded 1.9 million securities versus the previous day’s 30.5 million securities showing a decline of 49.3 per cent. The value of trades went down by 64.3 per cent to N80.3 million from N225.1 million, but the number of deals jumped by 32.1 per cent to 37 deals from 28 deals.
Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc finished the session as the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units valued at N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 178.9 million units transacted for N9.5 billion, and MRS Oil Plc with 36.1 million units traded for N4.9 billion.
The most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis was still InfraCredit Plc with 5.8 billion units worth N16.4 billion, trailed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units sold for N420.7 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units traded for N524.9 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
It was not a good day for the Nigerian Naira at the two major foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday as it suffered a heavy loss against the United States Dollar at the close of transactions.
In the black market segment, the Naira weakened against its American counterpart yesterday by N10 to quote at N1,485/$1, in contrast to the N1,475/$1 it was traded a day earlier, and at the GTBank forex counter, it depreciated by N2 to settle at N1,467/$1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,465/$1.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) window, which is also the official market, the nation’s legal tender crashed against the greenback by N6.65 or 0.46 per cent to close at N1,464.49/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,457.84/$1.
In the same vein, the local currency tumbled against the Euro in the spot market by N2.25 to sell for N1,714.63/€1 compared with the previous day’s N1,712.38/€1, but appreciated against the Pound Sterling by 73 Kobo to finish at N1,957.30/£1 compared with the N1,958.03/£1 it was traded in the preceding session.
The market continues to face seasonal pressure even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is still conducting FX intervention sales, which have significantly reduced but not remove pressure from the Naira. Also, there seems to be reduced supply from exporters, foreign portfolio investors and non-bank corporate inflows.
President Bola Tinubu on Friday presented the government’s N58.47 trillion budget plan aimed at consolidating economic reforms and boosting growth.
The budget is based on a projected crude oil price of $64.85 a barrel and includes a target oil output of 1.84 million barrels a day. It also projects an exchange rate of N1,400 to the Dollar.
President Tinubu said inflation had plunged to an annual rate of 14.45 per cent in November from 24.23 per cent in March, while foreign reserves had surged to a seven-year high of $47 billion.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was dominated by the bulls but it continues to face increased pressure after million in liquidations in previous session over accelerating declines, with Dogecoin (DOGE) recovering 4.2 per cent to trade at $0.1309.
Further, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 3.9 per cent to $1.90, Cardano (ADA) rose by 3.5 per cent to $0.3728, Solana (SOL) jumped by 3.4 per cent to $126.23, Ethereum (ETH) climbed by 2.9 per cent to $2,982.42, Binance Coin (BNB) gained 2.0 per cent to sell for $853.06, Bitcoin (BTC) improved by 1.7 per cent to $88,281.21, and Litecoin (LTC) soared by 1.2 per cent to $76.50, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
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