Nigeria — dairy collection first, in the Federal Capital Territory.

1Instruments in place

1. Memorandum of understanding between Gigawatt Burundi S.A. and Africa Projects Development Centre (APDC), Gwagwalada, Abuja, signed at Bujumbura
2. Launch-phase work plan within ninety days of signature

2Network lead member

Africa Projects Development Centre

An Abuja-based development and incubation organization with two pillars — youth incubation and training, and project development and management. It has trained several thousand young agripreneurs across Nigeria in poultry, aquaculture, horticulture and related agribusinesses, and works regionally beyond Nigeria. It incubates and accelerates cooperatives, agricultural small and medium enterprises and youth- and women-led businesses anchored on hub services.

3The first unit: dairy collection

• One sub-collection unit. A light unit of 30–36 kWp, sized to August, in the Paikon-Kore dairy catchment of Gwagwalada Area Council: ice-bank milk coolers, a battery-swap point and a retail and agent counter, serving pastoral settlements and farming villages alike.
• Technician and spares. A store in Gwagwalada town, about 10 km away, from the first day; APDC's campus at Kutunku becomes the cluster base after the first unit.
• Paid per liter and per swap. Milk cooling and collection logistics paid per liter; battery swaps for aggregators and riders.
• Gates. Consent from every affected community, a site agreed with the Federal Capital Territory Administration, and signed service agreements before construction.

4Agriculture and value chains

The world's largest cassava producer; maize grown by four in five farming households; yam, sorghum, rice and a large pastoral dairy sector; 40 million agricultural households on farms averaging 0.85 hectares. Maize losses after harvest run at 17.5%; cassava and rice processing and milk collection remain the national gaps.

5Energy compact and regulation

Nigeria's National Energy Compact commits to raising the annual electrification rate to 9% and the renewable share of generation to 50% by 2030, with the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) program alone reaching 17.5 million people through mini-grids and standalone solar. Mini-grids are regulated under the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission's Mini-Grid Regulations 2026 in the Federal Capital Territory, and by the State regulator where oversight has transferred; the Value Added Tax (Modification) Order of 2024 exempts a range of clean-energy equipment.

6Counterpart institutions

Energy

Federal Ministry of Power; Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission; Rural Electrification Agency; state electricity regulators under the Electricity Act 2023

Agriculture

Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security; state ministries of agriculture

Finance

Federal Ministry of Finance

7Programs the hubs can attach to

• Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES, World Bank)
• Energizing Education Programme (Rural Electrification Agency)
• National Agricultural Growth Scheme and State agricultural programs
• Mission 300 National Energy Compact

8What is different here

1. Federal structure: land, agricultural programming and much electricity authorization sit at State level — a State-by-State engagement, not a single federal permission.
2. Scale: the country supports a large hub network and justifies its own national engineering and customs base from the first cluster.
3. The Federal Capital Territory and adjacent States are the natural first clusters.

9How deployment runs

The first unit in Gwagwalada Area Council; then a cluster around the Federal Capital Territory with APDC's campus as the base, and States that provide sites and written alignment sequenced next. A standard hub follows on a signed capacity contract with a dairy anchor. A Nigerian technical base is stood up with the first cluster rather than served from Burundi.

10Next step

Engagement runs through Africa Projects Development Centre in Abuja.

A country launch-phase package — site assessment, equipment configuration against local crops and volumes, the partner and program map, and a funding roadmap built on programs already financed in the country — is prepared jointly with the country member for an interested government or funder.

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