Nigeria — in parallel, a base of its own.

1Instruments in place

1. Country program memorandum of understanding with Africa Projects Development Centre, signed at Bujumbura, August 2026
2. Ninety-day work plan: country knowledge pack, state government and program map, candidate sites, country plan of action — due November 2026

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 more than 10,000 young agripreneurs across Nigeria in poultry, aquaculture, horticulture and related agribusinesses, most of them now running businesses or in employment, 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.

3Agriculture and value chains

The world's largest cassava producer; maize grown by four in five farming households; yam, sorghum and rice; 40 million agricultural households on farms averaging 0.85 hectares. Maize losses after harvest run at 17.5%; cassava and rice processing remain the national gap. Nigeria's 12 GW of installed generation delivers around 40% at any time, which is why distributed productive power carries such weight here.

4Energy 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 program alone reaching 16 million people through mini-grids and standalone solar. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission's Mini-Grid Regulations of 29 December 2023 recognize isolated and interconnected mini-grids and portfolio tariffs; the Value Added Tax (Modification) Order of 2024 exempts a range of clean-energy equipment.

5Counterpart 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

6Programs the hubs can attach to

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

7What 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: a country that supports a larger hub network than the other four combined, and justifies its own national engineering and customs base from the first cluster.
3. Security is regional and specific — the northeast, the northwest and the Delta each differ; the Federal Capital Territory, the Middle Belt and the southwest are the natural first clusters.

8How deployment runs

Wave 1 is a pilot cluster around the Federal Capital Territory and the member's own facilities at Gwagwalada; states that provide sites and written alignment are sequenced next. A Nigerian technical base is stood up with the first cluster rather than served from Burundi.

9Next 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.

Start the conversation