Get Guardian on GoogleMrs Juliet Akinallen, a frozen food operator at the Eshidana Market, Okerube in Abaranje area of Lagos, and other traders in that line of business have been crying in silence over the negative impact of epileptic power supply on their trade.
While she had struggled over the years to stay afloat after recurring incidences of spoilage that had almost led her to bankruptcy, Akinallen kept hope alive, hoping that one day she’ll get a new business that’ll make her to finally quit the frozen food business she had engaged-in for 10 years.
“The electricity situation in this area has been very poor in recent time. At times when we discover that the frozen foods are getting to the point of spoilage, we give them out and at times, we sell them at cheaper rates, instead of recording total losses. At times we spend up to N9, 000 daily to fuel generators to ensure that the fishes, chickens are turkey are in good condition. If you spend that kind of money from your profit daily, it amounts to going home empty handed.”
Another trader, Mrs Florin Osagie, the owner of Floxy Spice Delight, also had a bitter experience from the epileptic power situation on her business. “At times, when power is restored in the morning, within minutes it will be taken off till night and that’s how we have been enduring the unpalatable situation.
We depend solely on generating sets buying as much as 10 litres a day, depending on how light is available.”
Just like Akinallen, Osagie narrated how losses incurred on weekly basis has seriously impacted her business and also made her to lose some of her loyal customers. “There was a woman who bought chicken, on getting home, she returned the goods and demanded a refund, which seems to be a difficult problem in business. There are many cases like that too.”
These are two of the numerous sweet-bitter experiences of young women and youths engaging in food, cold-storage and agriculture related businesses in the country.
But with the emergence of Energizing Women and Youth in Agri-Food Systems (EWAS) – an initiative designed to integrate technologies into agriculture and empower young women in rural areas, the story of these traders have changed from losses to profits.
Now, Akinallen expresses a different experience. She has experienced a great turnaround in her business since she acquired a solar power initiative. The patronage has also increased as customers come from far and near because there’s assurance that there’ll be fresh frozen foods in her shop. “For now, I have been able to save the money spent on fuel as my profit, since the solar solution has provided constant power supply and it is cheaper. The repayment plans are also very flexible.”
While also giving her testimony, Osagie said: “But since the solar solution was introduced, it’s been a wonderful story. We acquired the freezer and solar panel. Our goods, which usually get spoiled before the intervention, are now in good condition, the refrigerators working perfectly and the chickens looking very attractive to the customers.
“We are enjoying good patronage on daily basis, seeing new customers. Before we usually buy small quantity for the fear of irregular electricity, but now I usually stock more than enough.”’
EWAS is a three-year strategic partnership between the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and the Mastercard Foundation. Operating across Ethiopia and Nigeria from 2024 through 2027, it integrates clean productive use of energy (PUE) technologies, such as solar irrigation, walk-in cold storage, solar milling and chest freezers, directly into agricultural value chains.
This initiative, aimed at enabling 17,000 jobs, especially for young women in Ethiopia and Nigeria, moves beyond traditional aid by treating renewable energy as a foundational productive asset for industrialisation.
EWAS seeks to improve access to green energy, promote the productive use of energy technologies, and provide training to help young women increase their incomes. By integrating these technologies into agriculture, the programme aims to empower young women in rural areas.
The programme, working with a consortium of partners including Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in Nigeria, and local businesses, is structured to deliver measurable progress across three high-impact areas – Gender-inclusive job creation: The initiative is designed to create 17,000 jobs, specifically targeting young women in Nigeria and Ethiopia to help close the persistent gender earnings gap in rural economies; Technological scaling:
By integrating solar-powered irrigation and walk-in cold storage, the programme stabilises value chains in poultry, horticulture, and milling; and De-risking finance: Utilising the Productive Use Financing Facility (PUFF), the programme provides results-based subsidies and capacity-building grants to make green technologies affordable for communities, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) such as farmers.
In Lagos, the initiative operates across 16 peri-urban communities, concentrated mainly in Alimosho (Ayobo, Ikotun, Egbeda), as well as Ikorodu and Ojo. So far, 88 of 90 target systems have been deployed, with 85 installed. From this, 68 systems went to women (77%). Also, 350 of 637 phase jobs created, including 25 master agents, 29 sub-agents, 21 installers (8 women), three female project staff, loaders, and logistics staff.
Aside the fact that the initiative focuses on Lagos traders running their businesses on solar power, another success story of the initiative is the fact that it is the female folks that are installing these solar system, thereby breaking into a male-dominated trade.
The Manager, Powering and Opportunity-Nigeria, Farouk Bello, said the aim of the programme is to give young women the necessary support that will improve their livelihood, in order to earn more income for improved livelihood.
Bello, who disclosed that the intervention is a $31 million programme, which actual implementation started in 2026, said they targeted women in business with renewable energy to improve their lives in agriculture, food preservation and others. SunFi is also one of the local partners distributing chest freezers that are powered by solar, as you see many women selling perishable food, cold drinks, meat, fish, they need these chest freezers to improve their business and power their businesses to make a lot of money. So, the idea here with SunFi is for us to encourage them, give them grant to support these young women, give the favourable repayments plans.
He said: “SunFi is one of the local partners distributing chest freezers that are powered by solar. Many of these women selling perishable foods, cold drinks, meat, fish and others need these chest freezers to improve their business and make a lot of money. So, the idea here with SunFi is for us to encourage them, give them grant to support these young women, and favourable repayments plans.
“There are three components of the programme: we have the grant side, which is being implemented by RMI; we have the venture building component, which is being implemented by hollom, and then we have the productive use finance facility, which is supporting the companies that gives the women the Productive Energy Appliances, such as solar-powered chest freezers, which works even when the grid is down.
“We are not adopting blanket approach like many grant programmes who decide what participants need. We work with individuals and see their needs. Some have chest freezers, connected to national grid but there is power, while some of them don’t have the chest freezers, but they need it and also power.”
Bello noted that the intervention is not just to support the participants; it is also making sure that they live comfortably, earn incomes that actually improve their lives. “We have created jobs for over 1,013 women across the country, we are working with six partners in Nigeria we have deployed over 200 equipment of various sizes, this is just one part of the programme.
“In Enugu, we have a community where we created about 575 jobs where there is a cold room and 15 greenhouses. Each of the green houses formed by 15 young women are trained on how to grow bell pepper with hybrid seeds – soilless farming, it’s a crop that earn good money. So, we operate with different modules.
“In Lagos, we approach young women in markets with existing businesses, but in the North we are about distributing solar-powered irrigation pumps to those that will not just do rain-fed farming but irrigation farming, they now have panel with irrigation pump to generate water to produce food.
“The focus on Agric is because it is the number major venture in the country, food production is a major job driver in the country. We work essentially on the nexus between energy and agriculture. We are called Global Energy Alliance but this intervention is mostly targeting solutions that energy can solve to provide s to enable agriculture thrive, create jobs and impact livelihoods.”
On her part, the Gender Expert and Project Lead for EWAS at SunFi Energy Solutions Limited said her firm – a solar service company, with specialisation in end-to-end details of getting solar equipment installed, revealed that they’ve been able to capture 90 participants in Lagos already.
“The intervention is important because we have unreliable and inadequate power supply in the country, and we have been able to empower businesses and ensure that electricity supply is more reliable and affordable to them. We ensure that their businesses keep running without spending excessive money on fuel for their generators. This makes sure that their businesses kept running with minimum cost and reliable for businesses, making sure that all businesses have access to power.
“We are focusing on women in the agric-food sector and the cold food chain in agriculture – selling frozen foods and others, this is more important because if they don’t have access to electricity the likelihood that what they sell is not in the best saleable state is very high. We are mitigating food wastages and ensure that their income is regular and reliable. Initially, we had a setback due to mistrust they have in the past and misinformation about cost, but now, they are convinced.”
She noted that they’ve been able to subsidise the initial payment, the requirements and collateral, adding that they are selling to these women at manufacturers’ price. “We even structured it in a thrift mode, to choose which is good for them, some pay weekly and monthly.”
