By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigerians were plunged into a fresh electricity outage on Friday, January 23, as the national electricity grid suffered a total collapse, the first of such incident recorded in 2026.

Data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) indicates that power generation fell to zero megawatts, while electricity supply to all 11 distribution companies dropped completely by about 1 pm.

The affected distribution firms include Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Abuja and Yola, all of which recorded zero load allocation at the time of the collapse.

The incident comes months after a series of grid failures in 2025, with the most recent occurring on December 29.

According to reports, Nigeria’s grid collapsed a total of 12 times alone last year.

These repeated breakdowns have persisted despite ongoing efforts to strengthen and expand the country’s power infrastructure.

Part of such efforts came from NISO as it announced on November 9, 2025 that it has collaborated with the West African Power Pool Information and Coordination Centre to carry out a synchronisation test linking Nigeria’s grid with the broader West African electricity network.

Business Post observed that the grid collapse has led to a decline in economic productivity. A development which has the potential to affect the wider business environment, as many businesses have to resort to more expensive and environmentally unfriendly alternatives.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The World Bank has approved $50 million for a solar agricultural expansion project in Nigeria and five other African countries.

The country will benefit from the programme under Productive Use Financing Facility (PUFF), a financial initiative backed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) designed to accelerate the adoption of solar-powered equipment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

PUFF operating under Mission 300, a flagship programme backed by the World Bank and AfDB, which aims to mobilise tens of billions of Dollars to provide electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030.

The expansion of PUFF-backed solutions 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.

The project disclosed through programme updates involving the World Bank and its partners, including the Rockefeller Foundation, will boost productivity, cut post-harvest losses, and expand clean energy access.

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.

“There is always the ability to scale that up,” the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Mr Rajiv Shah, said on January 15 during a visit to a solar-powered cold storage facility operated by SokoFresh in Nairobi.

“There’ll be more resources country by country as well,” Mr Shah added.

“We finance the innovations, the new projects and the new ideas that governments, the World Bank and others can then take to scale,” he said during a separate visit to a farm facility using solar-powered cold rooms for export-bound produce.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of global energy poverty, accounting for more than 80 per cent of the world’s population without access to electricity.

An estimated 600 million people in the region still live without reliable power, a gap that continues to constrain economic growth and limit productivity for farmers and small businesses.

PUFF is designed to bridge the affordability gap by providing grants, subsidies, and technical assistance to suppliers and distributors of solar-powered equipment.

The programme 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 programme is now transitioning into full-scale deployment, backed by fresh World Bank financing and philanthropic capital.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The federal government has selected Ekiti State to participate in a Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Phase Two Programme, an initiative supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

According to the Commissioner for Information in Ekiti State, Mr Taiwo Olatunbosun, the state’s inclusion in SAPZ Phase Two “is a clear acknowledgement of the government’s sustained efforts to reposition agriculture as a key driver of industrialisation, employment generation, and sustainable economic growth.”

“This programme will significantly enhance value addition, attract private sector investment, and improve livelihoods across Ekiti State,” he said.

He noted that the benefits of the SAPZ Programme would be far-reaching, with thousands of jobs expected to be created for young people, particularly in agro-processing and related industries.

The commissioner added that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would also gain from strengthened value chains and improved access to new markets, thereby boosting their growth and contribution to the State’s economy.

“This initiative is not just about agriculture; it is about empowering our people especially our youth and SMEs to build sustainable livelihoods, improve food security, and drive Ekiti’s economic future,” he said.

“The state government is fully prepared to ensure the timely and effective implementation of the programme with the execution of Subsidiary Loan Agreements, establishment of a State Implementation Unit, compliance with environmental and social safeguards, such as compensation of Project Affected Persons at the Agro-Industrial Hub in Itapaji, as well as the opening of dedicated project accounts and preparation of procurement plans and annual work programmes.”

Mr Olatunbosun also disclosed that the SAPZ National Coordination Office has indicated plans to organize an onboarding workshop to provide technical guidance and support to participating states ahead of full implementation.

He reaffirmed Ekiti state’s readiness to collaborate closely with the Federal Government, development partners, relevant ministries, departments and agencies and the private sector to ensure the successful delivery of the SAPZ phase two programme.

The commissioner concluded that the programme aligns with Ekiti State’s broader vision of enhancing food security, strengthening agricultural value chains, and creating sustainable economic opportunities for its people, adding that the state remains committed to leveraging the initiative to drive inclusive growth and long-term prosperity.