Every morning in Nigeria’s sprawling open-air markets, traders like Sadisu Sani race the sun to sell crates of fresh tomatoes, peppers, and vegetables before the day’s heat spoils them. By noon, under a blazing sun, prices drop by half. By evening, what isn’t sold is often tossed aside, and so is any chance at profit.
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu knows this story too well. He grew up on a small farm in rural Imo State, in Nigeria’s agricultural heartland. He watched his father and neighbours put in months of backbreaking labour, only for their harvests to rot for lack of cold storage.
He spent years working with farmers through the Small Holders Foundation, training them in better farming practices, but good seeds and good knowledge alone couldn’t beat the heat. Without a way to keep fresh produce cool, the loss was baked into the system.
Nigeria’s post-harvest waste is staggering. The country loses up to 40% of its food, worth around $9 billion every year. Nearly 93 million smallholder farmers lose an average of a quarter of their income because they simply can’t store what they grow. For a country where 88 million people face food insecurity, this is a crisis hiding in plain sight.
In 2015, Ikegwuonu decided to tackle the problem at its source. He founded ColdHubs: modular, solar-powered cold rooms that bring reliable cold storage directly to the farm gate or local market. Each hub is about the size of a shipping container but works like a walk-in refrigerator, powered entirely by the same sun that ripens Nigeria’s fruits and vegetables.
ColdHub’s Hub and Spoke Model
A single ColdHub can keep produce fresh for up to 21 days, compared to just a day or two without cooling. For traders and farmers who once sold in a panic or threw away spoiled goods, this simple solution changes everything.
ColdHubs operates on a pay-as-you-store model: farmers or traders pay around N200 per crate per day, just about 25 cents, to secure their goods until the right buyer or price comes along.
It’s affordable, accessible, and built for the realities of Nigeria’s informal markets. There’s no upfront investment in expensive equipment or diesel generators. The sun powers the hub by day; stored battery power keeps it cold by night.
Business Expansion and Impact
Since launching in Owerri in 2015, ColdHubs has grown from just three hubs to over 54 in 22 Nigerian states, serving more than 5,000 farmers, traders, and wholesalers every day. In 2021 alone, these hubs kept over 50,000 tonnes of food from ending up in the trash heap, food that feeds families, grows rural incomes, and reduces the country’s carbon footprint.
And the impact is bigger than cold storage. Each hub creates jobs, and over 60 women now run hubs across Nigeria, like Esther Uwakwe at Relief Market. She knows every trader’s name and produce. She logs every crate and checks IDs before handing it over; trust and traceability are as crucial as technology in building confidence among traders who often operate in cash-only systems.
ColdHubs hasn’t stopped innovating. With support from funders like USAID, the Swiss RE Foundation, and the Government of Japan, the company is rolling out solar-powered freezer hubs for fishing communities in the Niger Delta, where tonnes of fresh fish are lost daily for lack of ice. They’ve also launched refrigerated trucks to move cooled goods from remote farm gates to urban markets, bridging another weak link in Nigeria’s fragile supply chain.
The company’s technology isn’t static either. Using sensors and remote monitoring, each ColdHub transmits live data on temperature, energy use, and door openings back to a central operations team. This Internet of Things approach means small teams can maintain dozens of hubs, reducing downtime and spoilage.
The local economic impact is clear: farmers who once lost 30% of their harvest now sell it all. Traders who once earned just enough to restock can now save, pay school fees, and expand their stalls. Entire families are lifted by the simple guarantee that their hard work won’t be wasted overnight.
This impact ripples out. Nigeria’s agriculture sector employs over 35% of the country’s workforce, and 90% of rural livelihoods depend on it. When food stays fresh longer, communities have more to sell, transporters have more to move, and local businesses have more to buy. It’s a cold chain that warms the local economy.
Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
ColdHubs is also tackling climate change at a local level. Conventional diesel-powered cold storage burns through 20–30 litres of diesel per day, spewing carbon emissions. ColdHubs’ solar units instead save over 1 million kilogrammes of CO₂ each year. With food waste accounting for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, this is a climate solution disguised as a business plan.
The Road Ahead and International Expansion Dreams
Looking ahead, Ikegwuonu’s sights are set beyond Nigeria’s borders. ColdHubs has mapped opportunities to expand into Benin, Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, and Cameroon, countries facing similar food loss challenges.
To meet growing demand, they’re diversifying, adding larger 100-tonne walk-in units for big farm cooperatives, piloting solar-powered ice production, and developing AI and IoT integrations to optimise energy use and predict maintenance needs.
For Ikegwuonu, the mission is rooted in self-reliance: “We use the sun that makes our crops grow to keep them fresh. We hire local people to run the hubs. And we work with farmers to keep value in our communities.”
One crate at a time, ColdHubs is showing how African solutions can solve African problems, and even export those solutions to the world.
