cooling tcl nigeria
Sustainable Cooling

TechEmerge Sustainable Cooling Temperature-Controlled Logistics Nigeria

assess
source
select
match
pilot
scale
Project start
Jul, 2020
Open Call Deadline
Jan, 2021
Finalist announced
Mar, 2021
Matchmaking events
Apr, 2021
Pilots started
Jul, 2021

In partnership with:

  • uk aid logo

Temperature-controlled logistics (TCL) is vital to deliver fresh produce to markets and to protect life-saving vaccines from spoiling.  The sector needs affordable, energy-efficient innovations, but with TCL  consuming large amounts of energy and producing significant greenhouse gases, solutions must be climate-smart too.  

Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, and its nascent TCL market provides long-term opportunities while also paving the way for scaling new technologies, services, and business models across Africa more broadly.

In collaboration with Kobo360—an African digital logistics platform that connects truckers to customers—TechEmerge is conducting 21 innovative pilots that reduce losses in supply chains, strengthen access to TCL-dependent products and markets, and build commercial partnerships.

Market context

$432 bn GDP

Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy

206 mn

Nigeria is among the world’s fastest growing countries

$10+ bn

Global market for perishable products

TCL is crucial for both producers and consumers to participate in the global market for perishable products. Currently, Nigeria accounts for a very small slice of that market, but it offers long-term opportunities for those who enter at this nascent stage.

With 206 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country. Growing at one of the fastest rates in the world, Nigeria’s rapidly expanding young urban consumer segment is expected to fuel demand for perishable products, such as fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat products, all of which need temperature-controlled logistics for processing, packaging, transport, and storage.

The agriculture sector, which accounts for roughly 20 percent of GDP and 50 percent of jobs, needs affordable, accessible TCL innovations to get produce to markets. The food and beverage sector also requires TCL solutions, and aggregated output is $20.5 billion or 4.6 percent of GDP.

Nigeria, like many other developing economies, is a very cost sensitive market. It needs very innovative, cost-effective TCL solutions capable of kick-starting adoption even for low-value commodities.

Our adopters are some of Nigeria’s leading companies in the agriculture, food and beverage, retail, refrigeration, engineering, pharmaceuticals, logistics, transport, and distribution sectors.

Competitively selected from a field of more than 70 applicants from 19 countries, our innovators offer affordable, energy-efficient, climate-smart solutions for temperature-controlled logistics.

Twenty-one pilot projects are field-testing sustainable cooling solutions in Nigeria to improve transport, storage, control, and monitoring of perishable products and temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals.