What does it take to move from a promising agricultural innovation to meaningful impact at scale?
A visit to clean energy and agritech company Manamuz in Enugu State, Nigeria, reinforced an important lesson: scaling climate-smart agriculture is rarely about a single technology. It starts with solving very practical challenges that smallholder farmers face every day.
For many farmers, the challenge extends beyond production into what happens after the harvest: limited cold storage, excess heat, unreliable infrastructure, unpredictable markets, and difficulty accessing the financing needed to invest in better systems. In Enugu State, research among local pepper farmers has identified poor storage, handling, and preservation as key drivers of post-harvest losses. These losses highlight a reality that many farmers face: producing enough is only part of the equation. Without reliable storage, market access, and financing, a significant share of what they grow does not translate into income.
This perspective drives Accion’s work with our partners in the ClimaFii Alliance, a program supported by Shell Foundation through its partnership with the Transforming Energy Access platform funded by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through its Global Research and Technology Development (GRTD) portfolio and delivered by Accion, BFA Global, and Upaya Social Ventures. It is designed to connect smallholders and microentrepreneurs across India and sub-Saharan Africa with affordable financing to access productive-use energy and mobility assets, such as bioenergy and solar-powered tools, helping build more resilient livelihoods.
Manamuz is a clean energy and agritech company participating in the program. Through its integrated cluster model, the company combines solar-irrigated greenhouses, farmer financing and support, aggregation, market linkages, and solar-powered cold rooms known as Coldbox Store. When production exceeds immediate market demand, farmers can store surplus produce in the Coldbox Store, reducing spoilage and extending the time available to find buyers. The model is designed to reduce food loss, stabilize year-round production, and enable smallholder farmers to access and ultimately own climate-smart agricultural assets.
During our visit, we saw that demand is there, but the model is operationally complex and the infrastructure is expensive, with one greenhouse costing about nine million Nigerian naira before site-specific civil works. For Manamuz to scale beyond its current operating radius, the next step is to increase asset utilization, strengthen the systems and data that underpin its operations, expand financing pathways for smallholder ownership, and unlock strategic partnerships that can support logistics and distribution. ClimaFii will support Manamuz across these priority areas, helping the company build the foundations needed to accelerate the adoption of climate-smart agriculture solutions.
It was striking to see the ripple effects at the community level.
Manamuz’s cluster model benefits not only the farmers using its infrastructure but also the surrounding community. Access to solar power and new economic activity is creating opportunities for others nearby. We heard examples of women establishing small phone-charging businesses, local jobs being created, and new income-generating activities emerging around the greenhouse infrastructure. The effects go well beyond agricultural production.
One conversation with women cooperative leaders captures why this approach works in practice. When asked what they valued most about working with Manamuz, their response was simple: “There is no waste, no guesswork, and we know there is a market for what we produce.”
Strengthening farmers’ resilience and influencing long-term adoption of productive, climate-smart assets is not only about producing more. It is about reducing uncertainty, creating predictable income opportunities, and improving access to markets.
Through ClimaFii, we are exploring how support around customer financing, impact measurement, gender-inclusive design, partnerships, and climate resilience can strengthen enterprises like Manamuz and help them scale responsibly.
For Manamuz and the farmers it serves, stronger systems could mean more reliable access to productive assets, better use of data, clearer financing pathways, and more evidence to support future growth. “At Manamuz, we believe smallholder farmers should have the same access to climate-smart agricultural technology as larger producers. Our solar-irrigated greenhouses support year-round production, while the Coldbox Store preserves surplus harvests when immediate demand is insufficient, giving farmers more time to secure suitable markets instead of losing their produce. ClimaFii’s support is helping us strengthen the financing, data, and operational systems required to scale this integrated model responsibly,” says Uzochukwu Mbamalu, CEO of Manamuz Electric.
For us at Accion, the visit solidified an insight we continue to apply across our climate and agriculture work in Africa: technology alone is rarely enough to drive lasting adoption at scale. Scaling climate resilience requires strong institutions, trusted partnerships, practical financing mechanisms, market access, and tailored solutions. We have also found that challenges often viewed as barriers to investment can become opportunities for innovation and growth, especially when enterprises are supported by an effective ecosystem.
As we continue learning alongside enterprises like Manamuz, we are focused on identifying what works, sharing those lessons with the wider industry, and helping build more inclusive and climate-resilient systems across Africa.
Explore More
2025 Annual Report
Get in touch
Contact Accion Advisory
We work to transform the lives of underserved people and small businesses around the world through digitally enabled products and services that improve financial health and resilience. If you share this vision, let us know how we can work together.