Chief Executive of SMEFUNDS, Dr. Femi Oye, has expressed strong support for integrating floating solar photovoltaics with fisheries and aquaculture projects, describing the model as a significant investment opportunity for African small and medium enterprises. This endorsement comes amid increasing evidence that solar-powered aquaculture is a bankable business model capable of boosting rural economies and addressing Africa’s energy challenges.

“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 stated.

Dr. Oye highlighted the World Bank's recent approval of a $50 million grant to expand solar-powered agricultural solutions across Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo as proof of the viability of SMEFUNDS's vision. The financing is channeled through the Productive Use Financing Facility under the World Bank and African Development Bank’s Mission 300 programme, targeting the deployment of solar-powered cold rooms, refrigerators, water pumps and grain mills.

“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 being promoted is inspired by successes such as 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. The floating solar panels also reduce pond temperatures by between three and five degrees Celsius during summer, improving farm productivity.

SMEFUNDS is actively exploring frameworks to support entrepreneurs willing to pilot solar-integrated aquaculture ventures and is in discussions 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,” Oye 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.”

Oye also cited the example 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.

He urged entrepreneurs and state governments to seize the opportunity presented by the PUFF facility, which is moving from pilot into full-scale deployment in Nigeria and five other countries. He concluded by saying, “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.”