September 21, (THEWILL) — The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) welcomes the endorsement of its solar-powered irrigation pumps by the National Economic Council (NEC) for nationwide rollout ahead of the 2025 dry-season farming.
This landmark decision, taken at NEC’s 152nd meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday underscores the Council’s confidence in NASENI’s capacity to deliver homegrown, energy-efficient solutions that directly respond to Nigeria’s food security challenges.
For decades, Nigerian farmers have struggled with the high cost of irrigation, heavily dependent on fuel-powered pumps.
In line with its 3Cs mandate—Creation, Collaboration, and Commercialization—NASENI developed the solar-powered irrigation pump as an affordable, energy-efficient, and sustainable alternative.
The NASENI solar irrigation pump is also designed to help boost agricultural productivity by lowering operational costs for farmers, increasing yields, raising incomes, and improving rural livelihoods.
Speaking on the development, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NASENI, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, commended NEC’s resolution;
“NEC’s decision is a strong vote of confidence in our ability to deliver energy-efficient, homegrown solutions that will boost food production, lower costs for farmers, and secure livelihoods. Special appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the continuous support, ensuring NASENI remains at the forefront of advancing his administration’s reforms on industrialization, technology transfer, and food security. Together, we are building a more resilient agricultural sector, harvesting more sustainably and unlocking infinite possibilities for Nigeria.”
To facilitate immediate mass production and distribution of the pumps, NEC further mandated the Honourable Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, to work out funding modalities for NASENI.
This endorsement reinforces NASENI’s role as a key driver of President Tinubu’s #RenewedHope Agenda, particularly in advancing industrialization, local technology transfer, and sustainable solutions for national prosperity.
THEWILL recalls that NASENI and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) recently launched the second phase of the DELTA-2 Programme-the 2nd Call for Proposals, which will focus on Commercialization of all R&D outcomes in different fields of the economy.
The Delta-2 Project is a bilateral collaboration by the Federal Government of Nigeria through NASENI-PICTT and the Czech Republic through the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA CR).
The scheme targets submissions from innovators, technology entrepreneurs and researchers in Nigeria across mining, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, science and engineering, and the others.
The 1st Call for Proposals under the Delta-2 programme was launched in the year 2022, following which grants were disbursed by NASENI to winners of the approved projects to scale up their enterprises.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
