Opeoluwa Runsewe of Terroso Group has stated that investment in cold chain infrastructure could have a strong multiplier effect on employment, generating between 15,000 and 25,000 direct and indirect technical and support jobs when 1,000 modular cold rooms are deployed across clusters.
- +Cold-chain investment could create 25,000 jobs in Nigeria, expert says
Speaking exclusively to BusinessDay, he described Nigeria as a nation struggling with food security because of its failure in food preservation, pointing out that while the nation’s climate is well-suited for agriculture, a lack of infrastructure leads to staggering losses.
Speaking exclusively to BusinessDay, he described Nigeria as a nation struggling with food security because of its failure in food preservation, pointing out that while the nation’s climate is well-suited for agriculture, a lack of infrastructure leads to staggering losses. Current estimates suggest that between 30 percent and 60 percent of all harvests are lost before they ever reach the consumer, equivalent to an estimated N3.5 trillion to N5 trillion annually. He noted that recovering even a third of this value through improved preservation could return over N1 trillion to the economy.
He further observed that a significant expansion in cold chain infrastructure could reshape Nigeria’s agricultural labour market, driving both job creation and structural transformation across the value chain.
To move forward, Runsewe believes the country must transition to a system where harvest is stored in a right-temperature-controlled logistics system from the moment it leaves the field. He proposed a multi-pronged approach to address knowledge and infrastructure gaps, including financing development through public-private partnerships, development finance institutions and carbon funding; expanding rural aggregation with off-grid and solar-powered cold storage; using data to guide pricing decisions and reduce panic selling; and strengthening farmer capacity through technical training.
According to him, these could translate into job creation at technical, operational and managerial levels.
On workforce distribution, he indicated that logistics and operations would account for a large share of employment growth.
“Technical opportunities for engineers, refrigeration technicians and renewable energy specialists will be created. On the logistics and operations side, which will absorb a large share of the workforce, roles such as warehouse operators, cold chain coordinators, drivers, and packhouse staff will expand significantly. As volumes of preserved produce increase, logistics demand rises in parallel. A more efficient cold chain system could conservatively support tens of thousands of additional jobs nationwide within a few years, particularly as aggregation and distribution networks deepen.”
At the farm level, he stressed that reducing post-harvest losses would directly improve productivity and rural incomes. He said: “At the farm level, the impact is equally important. Reducing post-harvest losses by even 20 percent can materially improve farmer incomes and incentivise higher production. That leads to increased demand for farm labour, aggregation services, and rural enterprise. It also helps stabilise incomes, which is critical for reducing underemployment in rural areas.”
He went on to note that, as the sector becomes more structured, demand for higher-level professional roles would increase, particularly in areas such as project management, supply chain analysis, export management and infrastructure finance. He said: “At the managerial and strategic level, you will see growth in roles such as project managers, supply chain analysts, export managers, and infrastructure finance specialists. As the sector becomes more structured, these roles become essential for scaling and sustaining investment.”
Runsewe also drew attention to the emergence of new job categories as the ecosystem evolves. He said: “In terms of new and expanding job categories, we are looking at cold chain engineers, quality assurance specialists, compliance officers, traceability experts, and agri-logistics platform operators. These are roles that do not currently exist at scale in Nigeria but will become increasingly important as we build out the ecosystem.”
He underscored both the scale and quality of the potential impact, noting that cold chain development could transform agriculture into a more productive, year-round sector.
He said: “So overall, the impact is both quantitative and qualitative. You are not only creating jobs, you are formalising agriculture into a year-round, productivity-driven sector. If properly executed, cold chain development could support hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs over time, while also contributing meaningfully to GDP growth, reducing inflationary pressure on food prices, and improving export competitiveness.”
