Category: Business Day

The Alumni Association of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, on Monday said it has concluded plans to host the maiden Olusegun Mimiko Distinguished Alumni Lecture, in a landmark initiative aimed at celebrating the vision of the university’s founder while stimulating fresh conversations on the future of healthcare, innovation and equity.

BusinessDay reports that the Olusegun Mimiko Distinguished Alumni Lecture, scheduled for October 3rd 2026, has as its theme, ‘Advancing Health Equity and Innovation: The Legacy of a Caring Heart.’ The keynote speaker is the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the University, Friday Okonofua, who led the institution during its formative years.

Isaac Oluyi, the institution’s Public Relations Officer, in a statement made available to journalists in Akure said the event is expected to bring together members of the university community, alumni, healthcare professionals, policymakers, academics and other stakeholders to reflect on the evolution of UNIMED and the continuing relevance of its founding ideals.

According to the President of the UNIMED Alumni Association, Adedayo Adesida, the lecture is not merely an alumni gathering but an opportunity to preserve the history of the institution and reconnect successive generations with the vision that gave birth to the university.

Adesida said the association considered it important to institutionalise a lecture in honour of Dr Olusegun Mimiko because his vision went beyond establishing another university.

‘Dr. Olusegun Mimiko did not just build a university; he planted a tree so that a whole generation of medical and science professionals could sit in its shade,’ he said.

He explained that the choice of the theme was deliberate, noting that it captures the connection between the founder’s vision of people-centred healthcare and the contemporary need to deploy innovation and technology to address inequalities in access to healthcare.

‘The Alumni President said the association also regarded the lecture as an avenue for alumni to contribute meaningfully to the continued development of their alma mater.

‘For us as alumni, celebrating the founder is also about accepting the responsibility to sustain the values upon which UNIMED was established. The best way to honour that legacy is to ensure that the institution continues to produce professionals, ideas and innovations that improve lives,’ Adesida said.

‘The Vice-Chancellor of UNIMED, Ebunoluwa Adejuyigbe, said the event was significant because it provided an opportunity for the university community to reflect on the institution’s origins while looking towards its future.

She described the theme as a reflection of the ‘caring heart’ behind the establishment of UNIMED, stressing that the university’s mandate extends beyond the classroom to research, community service and the transformation of healthcare delivery.

According to her, the vision behind the university remains relevant to the institution’s current drive to achieve excellence in teaching, research, innovation and community impact.

‘It is important for every generation to understand where an institution comes from and the vision that brought it into existence. Celebrating our founder is therefore not simply about looking back; it is about drawing inspiration from that vision as we build the UNIMED of the future,’ the Vice-Chancellor said.

Adejuyigbe added that the university would continue to leverage technology and innovation in advancing its global visibility and impact. ‘The founding vision was ambitious. Our responsibility today is to build on that foundation, strengthen excellence in teaching and research, expand our impact on communities and position UNIMED as an institution whose contributions to health and medical education resonate nationally and internationally.

‘The Olusegun Mimiko Distinguished Alumni Lecture therefore comes against the background of a university seeking to preserve its founding ideals while responding to emerging challenges in healthcare and medical education.

‘For the Alumni Association, the choice of Professor Okonofua as keynote speaker also carries symbolic significance, as he was not only the university’s pioneer Vice-Chancellor but one of the principal figures involved in translating the founding vision into an operational academic institution.

‘We want this lecture to become part of the identity of UNIMED. It should be a platform where great minds interrogate the challenges facing healthcare, propose innovative solutions and inspire the next generation of medical and health professionals,’ she said.

The Vice-Chancellor similarly expressed the hope that the event would strengthen the bond between the university and its alumni while encouraging a culture of service and innovation.

She said the university would continue to draw strength from its history while remaining focused on building an institution capable of making meaningful contributions to healthcare in Nigeria and beyond.

Africa’s telecom boom did more than connect hundreds of millions of people. It created one of the continent’s most powerful wealth-building machines, rewarding entrepreneurs who were willing to spend heavily on licences, networks and distribution before the returns became visible.

From Nigeria’s Mike Adenuga and Egypt’s Naguib Sawiris to Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa and Sudanese-born Mo Ibrahim, some of Africa’s biggest technology fortunes were built by controlling infrastructure that millions of people had little choice but to use.

The lesson is becoming relevant again as the continent enters another infrastructure cycle, this time around fibre, data centres, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital payments.

The common thread is not simply technology. It is ownership of the underlying systems.

A recent analysis of African telecom fortunes found that Adenuga, Sawiris, Masiyiwa and Ibrahim built substantial wealth through telecom businesses that expanded across markets and, in some cases, were later sold or folded into larger international groups.

The model was relatively simple, although execution was anything but. Get a licence. Raise capital. Build the network. Acquire customers. Expand into other markets. Then use the scale of the network to create additional businesses.

That model worked because telecom had unusually high barriers to entry. A new operator needed regulatory approval, spectrum, towers, fibre, switching equipment, international capacity, retail distribution and enough capital to survive years of investment before the business reached scale.

Once those pieces were in place, however, the same infrastructure became a formidable competitive advantage.

Read also: Nigeria’s data boom drives fresh wave of telecom infrastructure investment

The licence was only the beginning

Mo Ibrahim saw the opportunity before many international investors did. In 1998, he founded Celtel after identifying African markets where telecommunications licences could be obtained at relatively low cost. Celtel subsequently expanded across several African countries and was sold to Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company in 2005 for more than $3 billion.

Ibrahim later recalled that when he proposed investing in African telecoms, some executives struggled to see the opportunity. ‘I thought you were smarter than that!’ was how he recalled one executive responding to his proposal to pursue an African licence.

Mike Adenuga took a similar infrastructure-heavy approach with Globacom.

Glo launched in 2003 and challenged the existing operators with aggressive pricing. But its longer-term strategy went beyond selling mobile calls and data. The company later built Glo-1, a submarine cable linking Nigeria with international capacity, giving the operator greater control over a critical part of its connectivity chain.

That distinction matters. The largest fortunes were not necessarily created by having the cleverest telecom application. They were created by owning pieces of infrastructure through which millions of transactions, calls, messages and data sessions had to pass.

Africa is now rebuilding the rails

The opportunity is changing, but the infrastructure logic remains. Africa is moving from a mobile-phone revolution into a broader digital infrastructure cycle involving fibre networks, cloud computing, data centres, AI computing, digital identity and payment systems.

In Nigeria, the government’s $2 billion Project BRIDGE is designed to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre and expand the national backbone. The government says the programme is intended to address structural connectivity gaps and support wider digital economic activity.

Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, has argued that infrastructure is the foundation on which the wider digital economy must be built.

‘Infrastructure is the bedrock for most of the things we want to achieve,’ Tijani said in an interview, adding that there is no strong economy without connectivity.

At a recent Semafor event, he made the argument more directly: ‘What we do not have is meaningful connectivity,’ referring to the ability of people to actually use digital services rather than simply live within network coverage.

That distinction could determine who captures the next wave of value.

Fintech is already sitting on the telecom rails

Africa’s fintech boom illustrates the point. Mobile money, digital banking, payment applications and other financial technology companies have been able to scale because telecom networks created a distribution layer reaching deep into markets that traditional financial institutions struggled to serve.

The new businesses therefore do not need to recreate the entire telecommunications system.

They can build on top of it. That has created a different type of technology entrepreneur: one that owns the application, payment platform or customer relationship, but not necessarily the underlying infrastructure.

The next stage could shift the balance again. African fintech investors are increasingly focusing on infrastructure such as payment settlement, identity, risk and treasury systems, rather than only consumer-facing applications.

In other words, the lesson from telecom is beginning to repeat itself inside fintech.

The valuable company may not always be the app that consumers see. It may be the infrastructure underneath the app that other companies cannot easily operate without.

The telecom billionaires are moving further down the stack

Strive Masiyiwa is already an example of that transition. The entrepreneur who built his fortune through mobile telecom has expanded into fibre, cloud and data centres. His businesses are now also investing in AI infrastructure.

In September, Cassava Technologies, founded by Masiyiwa, joined Vodafone and Elsewedy Electric to develop an AI data centre in Egypt, a project expected by the Egyptian government to attract $1 billion in foreign investment.

Masiyiwa has described the move as a continuation of his infrastructure strategy. In discussing his AI expansion, he said his company is moving from mobile and broadband infrastructure into computing infrastructure because African businesses need access to those capabilities locally.

Hassanein Hiridjee, founder of Axian Group, has made a similar argument. He describes telecom networks as part of the infrastructure required for Africa’s AI ambitions because data has to move from users to data centres and then to the applications that process it.

‘There is room for everyone,’ Hiridjee said, arguing that Africa’s infrastructure gap is large enough to require both local and international capital.

The next wealth cycle may be less visible

This is where the billionaire story becomes more interesting. The next African technology fortune may not come from another consumer app with millions of downloads.

It could come from fibre routes, data centres, cloud platforms, payment infrastructure, energy systems or other networks that businesses increasingly cannot operate without.

Tony Elumelu, chairman of United Bank for Africa, has made a similar case for infrastructure as a foundation of Africa’s digital economy.

‘You can’t talk about a digital economy in Africa without fixing critical infrastructure,’ Elumelu said, pointing specifically to digital connectivity and reliable electricity.

The argument is also consistent with his broader position that infrastructure investment is essential for economic development, particularly in digital connectivity, power and logistics.

That changes the question entrepreneurs should ask. Instead of asking only what digital product Africa needs, the bigger question is what infrastructure millions of businesses will eventually depend on.

Telecom entrepreneurs answered that question two decades ago. They did not merely build businesses around the mobile revolution. They built the network through which the revolution had to pass. That created scale, recurring revenue and strategic control.

Africa’s current technology boom is creating another opportunity to build such infrastructure. The difference is that the next rails may not be visible to consumers.

They could sit underground as fibre, inside data centres as computing capacity, behind payment transactions or inside the cloud.

But if the telecom era taught Africa anything about technology wealth, it is that owning the rails can sometimes be more valuable than building the vehicle that runs on them.

Global electricity systems will need to undergo a major transformation over the next decade, with renewable energy accounting for about 78 percent of global power generation by 2035 to support a broader shift towards electrification, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Electricity currently accounts for 23 percent of global final energy consumption. Under IRENA’s revised 1.5°C Scenario, that share is projected to rise to 35 percent by 2035 and above 50 percent by 2050.

Greater electrification across buildings, transport, and industry will drive the increase as countries seek to reduce fossil fuel use while meeting rising energy demand.

‘With the rising energy demand, electrification with renewables will be central for end-use sectors such as buildings, transport, and industry. Today, electricity accounts for 23% of global final energy use… It will rise to 35 percent by 2035 and above 50% by 2050,’ IRENA stated.

Renewables accounted for 31.7 percent of global electricity generation in 2024, producing 9,836 terawatt-hours (TWh). IRENA said this share would need to rise to around 78 percent by 2035, about 2.5 times its current level, for renewables to meet most of the additional electricity demand.

IRENA estimated that electrification, combined with energy efficiency, could deliver about one-third of cumulative CO2 emission reductions between 2026 and 2050.

The pace of electrification will vary across sectors. Buildings are expected to reach 55 percent electrification by 2035, driven by heat pumps, electric cooking and cooling. Industry is projected to reach about 35 percent, while transport is expected to rise from about 1 percent to 15 percent.

However, grid infrastructure remains a major constraint. About 2,500 GW of projects worldwide are awaiting grid connections, highlighting the need for greater investment in transmission, distribution, storage and system flexibility.

Annual investment in grids and flexibility will need to more than double from $500 billion in 2025 to about $1 trillion through 2035, before rising to $1.2 trilliion thereafter.

The incoming COP31 Presidency of Trkiye has announced a global target of 35 percent electrification of final energy demand by 2035, drawing on IRENA’s roadmap.

‘Countries start from different points based on their energy demand, electricity access, infrastructure and investment capacity, and will need to determine nationally appropriate pathways to meet the electrification target. Realising this shift depends on a wide range of forward-looking and co-ordinated policies,’ the Agency stated.

After intensive research and evaluation, the list of the top 50 companies based on Nigerians’ recall and other performance indicators has emerged. The companies will be unveiled this Friday in Lagos.

Giving details on the emergence of the 50 companies, the organization behind the research, Top 50 Brands Nigeria, explained that the Brand Strength Measurement (BSM) framework evaluates brand strength from the consumer perspective, incorporating factors including popularity, sentiment analysis, online engagement, trust, leadership, relevance and societal connection.

The firm’s research this year includes the top 20 Fintech brands in Nigeria. Taiwo Oluboyede, CEO/Chief Evaluator of Top 50 Brands in Nigeria, told BusinessDay that the ranking is based on the Fintech Brand Strength Index (FBSI), a sector-focused adaptation of the Brand Strength Measurement. ‘This will be an annual ranking designed to identify and recognise the country’s strongest fintech brands.’

He said, ‘Brand is not just an essential component of an organisation; the brand is the organisation. This ranking serves as a mirror that reflects how strongly brands are performing in the hearts and minds of Nigerians.’

He said the forum, themed ‘We Are Brand Nigeria – Creating Value, Shaping Perception, Building Our Future,’ will bring together senior business leaders, policymakers, brand custodians, media executives and other stakeholders at the Eko Atlantic City Sales Office, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Previous editions of the ranking have featured some of Nigeria’s most recognised corporate brands, including Dangote Industries, MTN Nigeria, Julius Berger, BUA Group, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank, Fidelity Bank and others.

PromiseLand Innovations Limited is set to launch its electric vehicle-powered e-hailing platform, ProTaxi, on October 1, 2026, as Nigeria marks its 66th Independence Anniversary, with the company targeting cleaner transportation, affordable mobility and job creation.

The Abuja-based platform would commence operations in the Federal Capital Territory before expanding to other parts of Nigeria and, subsequently, other African markets.

ProTaxi is being introduced into Nigeria’s competitive e-hailing market at a time when rising transportation costs and volatility in energy prices have intensified interest in alternative mobility solutions.

According to PromiseLand Innovations, the platform will deploy rechargeable electric vehicles to provide transportation services while reducing reliance on conventional petrol-powered vehicles.

The company said the initiative is designed to combine digital technology with green-energy transportation, allowing commuters to request rides through a mobile application while providing participating drivers with opportunities to earn income.

Lawrence Oloche, chief executive officer of PromiseLand Innovations Limited, had earlier announced plans under the initiative to empower 1,000 families with brand-new electric vehicles.

The scheme, according to the company, is intended to create employment and income-generating opportunities for Nigerians, particularly men and women who can drive and are interested in participating in the emerging electric-mobility industry.

Under the arrangement, prospective drivers will register for consideration and undergo screening, verification and onboarding before being admitted to the platform.

Successful participants will granted access to electric vehicles and the ProTaxi digital platform, through which they can provide transportation services and generate income.

The company said the initiative would also give drivers flexibility in managing their work schedules, allowing them to determine their availability while using the platform to connect with passengers.

For commuters, ProTaxi would provide a digital platform through which users can request rides, access trip information and make payments.

‘The mobile application is being developed for both Android and iPhone users, with features expected to include driver verification, real-time trip tracking, ratings and reviews, and location-sharing facilities’, the company noted.

These features, the company said, are intended to improve transparency, convenience and passenger safety during trips.

Unlike conventional e-hailing vehicles that depend predominantly on petrol, ProTaxi’s model will rely on rechargeable electric vehicles, potentially reducing the platform’s direct dependence on fossil fuels.

PromiseLand said the model is aimed at responding to changing energy dynamics and some of the operating-cost pressures faced by transportation operators.

The company believes that greater adoption of electric vehicles could contribute to cleaner urban transportation while providing an alternative for drivers and commuters facing rising mobility costs.

Oloche said the company’s objective was to combine technology, sustainable transportation and economic empowerment through the initiative.

The company said eligible Nigerians interested in joining the programme would be required to register and meet its screening and verification requirements.

DLM Capital Group, the First and Leading Development Investment Bank in the World, has successfully fulfilled its second principal and interest (coupon) payment obligation to investors under its ?9 billion Sovereign Bond-Backed Composite Notes (SBCN) issued under the Group’s ?30 billion Medium-Term Notes Programme listed on FMDQ Exchange.

The second principal and interest (coupon) payment of ?948,493,055.89 to Tranche A and ?197,077,309.63 to Tranche B comes six months after the successful payment of the first principal and interest obligation on DLM Funding SPV Plc’s ?7.30 billion Series 1 (Tranche A) and ?1.70 billion Series 3 (Tranche B) Plain Vanilla Returns SBCN, listed on FMDQ Exchange. This further demonstrates the Group’s consistent delivery since the issuance of the SBCN.

Developed by Sonnie Babatunde Ayere, Group CEO of DLM Capital Group, the pioneering financial instrument rated AAA by Global Credit Rating and DataPro Limited entered the market in July 2025. Its subsequent performance has provided an opportunity for the market to assess the strength of the structure through actual delivery. Tranche A also remains the most valuable listed corporate AAA rated bond on the market due to its unique inflation beating upward sloping returns.

Beyond its payment obligations, DLM Capital Group has maintained consistent quarterly performance reporting, providing investors and other market stakeholders with continued visibility into the instrument’s performance. The combination of regular reporting, strong credit ratings and the timely fulfilment of payment obligations continue to reinforce investor confidence in the structure.

The successful second coupon payment is therefore not only another milestone for the DLM SBCNs, but also a continuation of the Group’s commitment to developing and delivering innovative financial solutions backed by execution, transparency and value for its investors and stakeholders while strengthening its position as a leading financial institution that’s contributing to the continued development of Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.

Africa’s credit market presents a paradox that policymakers and financial institutions can no longer afford to ignore. Banks have capital and liquidity to lend, yet millions of individuals and businesses that need credit remain excluded from formal financing. The experience of South Africa provides a striking illustration. There, consumers submitted 18.5 million credit applications in the second quarter of 2025, but 67 percent were declined.

The message is that Africa does not necessarily have a shortage of money to lend but a shortage of reliable information with which lenders can confidently determine who should receive it.

This distinction is important because the consequences extend well beyond banking. The International Finance Corporation estimates that $331 billion in yearly SME financing demand goes unmet in sub-Saharan Africa. That financing gap represents businesses unable to purchase inventory, acquire equipment, employ more workers or expand production. It represents households unable to build homes or acquire productive assets at a reasonable pace.

For too many Africans, economic progress has consequently become an exercise in saving first and building later. A family builds a house one room at a time because mortgage finance is unavailable. A small trader expands only after accumulating enough cash to purchase additional stock. A manufacturer delays acquiring equipment until retained earnings can finance it.

While this may appear prudent, it has a substantial economic cost. When productive investment depends almost entirely on accumulated savings, economic growth becomes slower than it needs to be. Businesses cannot respond quickly to opportunities, employment creation is constrained, and assets take years to build.

The problem is particularly serious because much of Africa’s economic activity takes place outside the formal financial system. Informal businesses may have customers, turnover and reliable suppliers but lack the payslips, audited accounts, extensive banking histories or conventional credit records demanded by traditional lenders.

The consequence is a damaging mismatch, as people can be economically active without being financially visible.

This is where the continent’s financial institutions need to rethink how creditworthiness is assessed. The answer is not for banks to lower their lending standards or abandon risk management. That would merely create another problem through rising defaults and weakened financial institutions. The objective should instead be to widen the evidence upon which responsible lending decisions are based.

Regular rent payments, utility bills, mobile-money transactions, school-fee savings, supplier payments and other consistent financial behaviours can reveal valuable information about an individual’s or business’s capacity to repay. The challenge is converting these scattered signals into reliable, transparent and usable credit intelligence.

This is increasingly possible through alternative-data analytics and modern credit-scoring systems. Evidence from emerging lending models suggests that expanding the pool of information available to lenders can bring previously excluded borrowers into the formal credit system without necessarily producing a corresponding explosion in bad loans.

That should encourage African banks to move beyond the traditional definition of a bankable customer.

The ideal situation is an African credit market in which credit decisions are based on demonstrated economic behaviour rather than simply on formal documentation. A trader should not be automatically considered a poor credit risk because she lacks a conventional payslip if her transaction history demonstrates consistent income and repayment behaviour. A small business should not be excluded simply because it has no lengthy audited history when alternative data can provide credible evidence of its cash flow and obligations.

Banks, however, must also confront an internal problem. Innovation can become trapped within layers of product, risk, technology, compliance and management approval. While these safeguards are necessary, excessive institutional caution can prevent financial institutions from responding quickly to an enormous market opportunity.

The way forward therefore requires collaboration among banks, fintech companies, credit bureaus, telecoms operators, payment platforms, regulators and data providers. Regulators should establish clear rules governing responsible use, privacy, consent and accuracy of alternative data, while financial institutions should invest in the technology and skills required to interpret it.

Governments also have a role in accelerating financial formalisation by improving digital identity, business registration, address systems and data-sharing frameworks. These are not merely administrative reforms but foundations for expanding access to productive credit.

Eventually, Africa’s credit challenge is an economic development challenge. Every viable business denied financing represents potentially lost jobs, production and tax revenue. Every household unable to finance productive assets loses years of economic opportunity.

The continent does not need to manufacture capital that already exists within its financial system. It needs to build the infrastructure and confidence required to deploy that capital more intelligently.

Access to basic healthcare has continued to receive a boost as Rotary International District 9112 has opened a recreation centre, OGRA Sick Bay, in Lagos, a facility designed to provide basic healthcare services, particularly for elderly members and other users.

The facility was recently inaugurated by the Governor of Rotary International District 9112, Rotarian Layi Abidoye, alongside the President of the OGRA Recreation Centre, Aliu Obabiolorunosi Gafar, and the President of the Rotary Club of Ogudu GRA, Ayodeji Odumosu.

Speaking on the project, according to a statement, Gafar described the sick bay as a timely intervention, noting that it would improve access to healthcare within the centre.

In a show of community empowerment, the club also presented microcredit cheques totalling N2.1 million to 10 beneficiaries, including the Baba Oloja, to support small businesses and improve livelihoods.

Secretary-General of the Kosofo Market Association, Gbenga Fayemi, according to the statement, commended the initiative and urged beneficiaries to utilise the funds responsibly. He stressed that proper use of the fund would ensure sustainability and allow more people to benefit from the scheme.

‘The financial support is an important intervention that can help strengthen businesses and improve livelihoods,’ Fayemi said.

In his remarks, the Club President, Odumosu, said the activities were designed to grow membership and deliver impactful projects that address community needs.

He noted that the District Governor’s visit provided an opportunity to review the club’s programmes and strengthen its alignment with Rotary’s service objectives.

A newly wedded couple, identified as Funmilayo Bamidele and her husband, Abiodun David, a Reverend, have been abducted along the Iyemero-Eruku Road, a border route between Kwara and Kogi States.

The couple were reportedly returning from their engagement ceremony in Eruku when they were abducted alongside four other persons on Saturday evening.

According to sources, the vehicle was initially expected to take the Isanlu Road, but the driver opted for a back route to drop off the best man and other members of the group at Iyamoye in Kogi State.

The vehicle was, however, intercepted by armed men along the Iyemero-Eruku Road, leading to the abduction of the occupants.

A photograph of the newly abducted couple has since emerged following the incident.

Details on the whereabouts of the other passengers and efforts to secure their release were still being awaited as of press time.

Adekimi Ojo, the Kwara State Commissioner of Police, who confirmed the incident, on Sunday disclosed that soldiers had been deployed to comb the surrounding bush in an effort to rescue the victims and apprehend the perpetrators.

Ojo explained that the vehicle in which the couple were travelling was later found parked at an abandoned police station in Ayetoro, Ekiti State.

He added that Police operatives from the three affected states were jointly conducting a rescue operation, given that the incident occurred around the border communities of Kwara, Kogi and Ekiti States.

Nigerian cold storage operators are increasingly turning to captive gas-fired power generation as businesses across the food preservation and logistics sector look to curb soaring energy costs and shield operations from an unreliable national grid.

A Lagos-based cold storage and frozen food distribution company has commissioned a 1-megawatt gas power plant supplied, installed and commissioned by Clarke Energy, a multinational distributed energy provider, marking the firm’s entry into Nigeria’s expanding cold-chain market.

The plant now supplies electricity to the company’s refrigeration and cooling systems, including compressors and other essential facility loads, replacing reliance on diesel generation that has long been the default backup for Nigerian businesses navigating an inconsistent grid.

For cold-chain operators, power reliability is not a convenience but an operational necessity. Refrigeration units must run continuously to preserve product quality and meet food safety standards; even short outages can spoil inventory and trigger significant losses. In a market where grid supply remains patchy, that has pushed energy costs to among the highest line items for food processors, pharmaceutical storage firms and agricultural distributors alike.

Diesel has traditionally filled the gap, but at a steep price. Fuel costs, maintenance and the logistics of sourcing diesel in bulk have made backup power one of the most expensive parts of running a cold-storage business in Nigeria. Gas-fired generation offers an alternative that companies say is both cheaper to run and cleaner-burning, while still capable of providing the round-the-clock output cold storage facilities require.

Yiannis Tsantilas, managing director of Clarke Energy for Sub-Saharan Africa, said the project underscores the central role reliable power plays in food security.

‘The cold-chain industry plays a vital role in food preservation, food security, and the reduction of post-harvest losses,’ Tsantilas said. ‘Maintaining uninterrupted refrigeration requires reliable power that businesses can depend on around the clock.’

He added that gas-powered generation can give large-scale cold storage operators a cost-effective route to dependable electricity, helping them manage energy expenses while improving resilience.

Tsantilas said Clarke Energy sees room for further expansion in the sector as Nigeria’s food storage, processing and distribution infrastructure continues to build out.

‘We see significant opportunities for the adoption of gas-powered generation within the cold-chain industry,’ he said, adding that dependable power will be ‘a critical enabler of long-term success’ as operators balance productivity with preservation standards.

The Lagos installation is part of a broader shift among Nigerian commercial and industrial users toward captive power – self-generated electricity that gives companies more control over supply than they can get from the national grid.

Industry watchers say the trend has accelerated as businesses across sectors, not just cold storage, look to insulate themselves from outages and price volatility tied to imported diesel.