Nigeria’s commitments and priorities in its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)  are structured in the context of actualising its socioeconomic aims as elaborated in the Economic Recovery  & Growth Plan (ERGP). Among key aims being realising food security, enhancing competitive enterprise and  value addition to create income and job opportunities for the youth and expand economic growth. The  message in this mix of priorities is clear – Nigeria’s efforts to combat climate change must align with  accelerating socioeconomic growth to build resilience of populations.

Section 5 of the Paris Climate Change Agreement underscores the fact that to drive climate action  implementation we need to bring on board both state and non-state actor and this is re-echoed in the  Sustainable Development Goal 17 (SDG17) where inclusive partnership are crucial to drive the  implementation of the SDGs and climate action. In Africa, and indeed Nigeria, the youth whose population  exceeds 50% in both contexts, are the most significant non-state actor constituency in terms of numbers.  This implies that they are a significant non-state actor to engage in driving climate action implementation in  Africa and their role needs to be clearly defined. Through this work, climate action enterprise actions,  borrowing lessons from Kenya and Uganda – has established to upscale specifically clean energy and  Ecosystems Based Adaptation (EBA) driven agriculture priorities that are not only in Nigeria NDCs – but  covered in up to 70% of NDC priorities across Africa. This work is demonstrating how climate action  enterprise actions can reverse productivity and postharvest losses (PHLs) in tomato and cassava value chains  among others food crops.  

Through these interventions, key elements of a structure for NDCs implementation through enterprise  actions have started to be established in Nigeria at the community levels where it matters most. Specifically,  the complementary amalgamation of clean energy with EBA-driven agriculture as core of NDCs priorities that  cover socioeconomic priorities; incubation of solar dryer solutions and decentralisation of the same to add  value across agro-value chains; generation of data to inform policy – specifically market incentives policy  structure; data to inform entrepreneurship education curriculum development to ensure integration of  climate action as an investment and source of enterprise opportunities have been initiated.

Nigeria losses billions in PHLs. For example, while the country is the second largest producer of tomatoes in Africa, it loses up to  60% of what is produces, averaging over $70 million each year – largely because of inadequate processing. Up to $1billion each  year is spent importing tomato and tomato paste – leading to market opportunities that would have created enterprises locally,  being taken up by others. In 2017, Nigeria lost tomato valued at $15 billion. Tomato is not the only loss. In cassava, where Nigeria  is the largest producer globally, up to $400 million is lost each year as PHLs. Importation of wheat, costs Nigeria an estimated  $4billion in foreign exchange losses each year. While wheat is the major ingredient in bread, cassava flour offers a worthy  substitute and complementor to not only make better tasting, more nutritious bread, but create local enterprise opportunities  while saving Nigeria’s economy billions that can be invested in driving the SDGs. The cassava bread policy provides a positive policy  signal to leverage this massive opportunity for the SDGs.  

Finding ways to convert these into much needed jobs and incomes is our fierce urgency of now. These  challenges present a billion-dollar worth market opportunity to tap and devising climate action solutions can  turn these challenges into opportunities and create jobs for the youth. 

Why Drying is important ? 

Drying is defined as a moisture removal process due to simultaneous heat and mass transfer. It is a traditional  method of food preservation for agricultural products.  Drying rate depends on external parameters (solar radiations, ambient temperature, wind velocity and  relative humidity) and internal parameters (initial moisture content, type of crop, crop absorptivity, and mass  of product per unit exposed area). Drying under open sun using the solar radiations for food preservation is  practiced since ancient times. Drying involves a heat and mass transfer phenomenon in which heat energy  supplied to the product surface is utilized in two ways: (i) to increase the product surface temperature in the  form of sensible heat and (ii) to vaporize the moisture present in product through the provision of the latent  heat of vaporization. The removal of moisture from the interior of the product takes place due to induced  vapor pressure difference between the product and surrounding medium. The moisture from the interior  diffuses to the product surface to replenish the evaporated surrounding moisture.  

ADVANTAGES OF SOLAR DRYERS  

The advantages of using solar driers over sun drying of foods are listed below: 

• Less spoilage or less wastage of dried products 
• Different value creation possible since dried products have higher margins 
• Higher durability and transparency over time (important for greenhouse effect) • Ultraviolet (UV) protection of solar dryers maintains colors and nutrients of food (fruits and  vegetables 
• Better products quality(color, skin, taste) 
• Better prices/market value of products (due to better quality), higher affordability level, better  payback power of farmers 
• High hygienic standards of food products (no dust, no pollution, no fungus, no animals, no foreign  materials etc.) 
• Productivity increase in terms of labor and energy cost saving.

Interventions  

Structural guidance for youth Skills Retooling in fabrication of solar dryers: with structural guidance from the  UNEP-EBAFOSA secretariat, willing youths in Nigeria were registered as Innovative Volunteerism actors and were inspired to take purpose driven action and leverage their skills in a collective way and tap opportunities  inherent in Africa’s challenges through the lens of clean energy powered agro-industrialization...read the full report on the attached document.

Register to become an innovative volunteerism actor at: click to register

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