SMEFUNDS backs renewable energy-driven fisheries

As solar-powered aquaculture continues to transform rural livelihoods across Asia and Africa, Chief Executive, SMEFUNDS, Dr. Femi Oye, has thrown his full weight behind the growing movement to integrate floating solar photovoltaics with fisheries and aquaculture projects, describing the model as one of the most compelling investment frontiers for African small and medium enterprises today.

Oye’s endorsement comes on the heels of mounting global evidence that solar-powered aquaculture is not merely an environmental statement, but a bankable, scalable business model capable of lifting rural communities out of poverty while simultaneously addressing Africa’s chronic energy deficit.

“What we are seeing in China and across parts of Asia is not a distant dream — it is a blueprint.A 55-year-old fish farmer in Nanjing is now producing 175 tonnes of crabs annually, generating millionaires within his farming community, and reducing carbon emissions at the same time. That story should be playing out in Kogi, in Anambra, in Ogun and in every riverine community across this continent,” Oye said.

Oye pointed to the recent World Bank approval of a $50 million grant to expand solar-powered agricultural solutions across Nigeria and five other African countries as a validation of the direction SMEFUNDS has long been advocating. The financing, being channelled through the Productive Use Financing Facility under the World Bank and African Development Bank’s Mission 300 programme, targets the deployment of solar-powered cold rooms, refrigerators, water pumps and grain mills across Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The World Bank does not commit $50 million to an idea that does not work.And the Rockefeller Foundation has already added $12 million to that pot, with signals that more is coming. When institutions of that calibre speak with their chequebooks, the SME community needs to pay close attention and position itself to benefit,” Oye noted.

The model gaining international attention draws heavily from experiences like that of Cheng Youhe, a Chinese aquaculture entrepreneur who transformed a 146.7-hectare site in Nanjing into a solar-powered fishery demonstration zone with a 50-megawatt-peak installed solar capacity generating 60 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. Beyond energy generation, the floating solar panels have been found to reduce pond temperatures by between three and five degrees Celsius during summer, preventing aquatic plants from dying off and improving overall farm productivity.

For Oye, the environmental co-benefits of such projects are as important as the economic ones. “We talk about air quality, about blue skies, about climate commitments. But what moves ordinary Nigerians is the prospect of earning a reliable income. Solar aquaculture delivers on both counts. You do not have to choose between prosperity and responsibility.”

SMEFUNDS, which focuses on broadening access to financing and capacity support for small and medium enterprises in Nigeria and across Africa, has been actively exploring frameworks to support entrepreneurs willing to pilot solar-integrated aquaculture ventures. Oye indicated that the organisation is in conversations with development finance institutions and private sector partners to develop a dedicated financing window for such projects.

“Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than 80 percent of the world’s population living without reliable electricity access,” he said. “That is not just a humanitarian crisis — it is an economic opportunity of staggering proportions. Solar-powered aquaculture addresses energy poverty and food insecurity in a single intervention. For an SME financier, that kind of dual impact is enormously attractive.”

He also drew attention to the success of India’s solar-powered food processing model, where over 800 solar dryers have been deployed to women farmers, preventing an estimated 40,000 tons of food from going to waste every year while providing additional incomes of between $1,000 and $1,500 annually. “If women farmers in rural Maharashtra can become micro-entrepreneurs and breadwinners through solar technology, then there is absolutely no reason why fishing communities along the Niger Delta, the shores of Lake Chad, or the banks of the Benue River cannot do the same,” Oye said.

He urged entrepreneurs and state governments not to wait on the sidelines while multilateral financing flows into the sector. “The PUFF facility is now moving from pilot into full-scale deployment. Nigeria is one of the six target countries. That means the grants, the subsidies and the technical assistance are coming. What we need on our end are entrepreneurs with vision and the courage to apply.”

He concluded with a message directed squarely at rural communities. “Within three years of launching his solar aquaculture farm, Cheng Youhe created his first millionaire. He now produces dozens of affluent farming households every year. I want that sentence to be written about a fish farmer in Nigeria. That is the future SMEFUNDS is working toward, and we will back every credible project that moves us closer to it.

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