Africa: How Reliable Energy Can Turn a Woman's Harvest Into a Thriving Business

What the report says

A guest column published by AllAfrica argues that reliable energy could help women farmers in Africa move beyond selling raw crops quickly and into more profitable agribusinesses. Using an example from Enugu State, Nigeria, the piece describes how a tomato harvest can be lost or undersold when there is no cold storage, irrigation or processing capacity. The author says this reflects a broader economic cost of weak electricity access and limited rural infrastructure.

The article links women’s farming work to wider development goals, noting that women make up a large share of the agrifood workforce in sub-Saharan Africa and that reducing productivity and wage gaps could add substantially to regional GDP. It also points to post-harvest losses and the financing barriers that women-led businesses often face, including higher loan rejection rates and collateral requirements. The argument is that electricity alone is not enough; energy must be paired with finance, business support and market access.

The column highlights the Energizing Women and Youth in Agrifood Systems programme, led by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet with the Mastercard Foundation, which aims to create jobs in Nigeria and Ethiopia through clean-energy technologies and enterprise support. It also cites a project in Enugu State using solar-powered cold rooms and greenhouses to serve farmers, many of them women. More broadly, the piece says productive renewable energy could help women retain more value from harvests, strengthen local food supply and build resilient rural businesses.