SOLTECH Hub
Get in touch
Market women collecting produce inside the SOLTECH cold room
Inspecting peppers and fresh vegetables on the shelves inside the SOLTECH cold room
Checking baskets of tomatoes stored on the cold room shelves
Traders handing out baskets of produce at the cold room door
A customer leaving the SOLTECH cold room with a bag of fresh vegetables

British Council IAU ASCEND Programme · Abuja, Nigeria

Cold storage powered by the sun

Solar-powered off-grid cold chain for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Get in touch See our progress
The mobile SOLTECH solar cold room unit Discover our
Phase 2 build
40+Market women and fresh-produce traders engaged
12+Smallholder farmers of tomatoes, peppers and greens
14Market women onboarded to store produce at the Hub

Built for Abuja's food markets, tested with the people who use them

SOLTECH Hub is a mobile, off-grid cold room built by Netune Atlantic Ltd and developed with five students from the University of Abuja Sustainable Development Centre. It gives smallholder farmers, traders and market women 24-hour cold storage, so less produce spoils before it sells.

Our partners, and some of the 8 stakeholder groups we have pitched to

  • British Council
  • Netune Atlantic
  • University of Abuja
  • Garki Market
    Association
  • Federal Ministry of
    Agriculture & Food Security
  • GAIN

Also pitched: Coordinator of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Programme · FCT Municipal Council, Abuja Investment & Property Company · Dei-Dei, Maitama, Gudu, Kuje and Wuye market associations · Nasarawa State Economic Empowerment Scheme Advisor · Extension Africa Agri Business

Technology Readiness Level

TRL 5 today. Commercial TRL 9 is the goal.

SOLTECH is at the Minimum Viable Product stage. The ASCEND programme is taking it towards commercial deployment.

Research and prototypeNow: MVPGoal: commercial

What we're building now, Phase 2 runs 3 Aug to 30 Oct 2026

Backend server

Built and waiting for the mobile app to connect to it.

Built

Mobile app and website

The AI-enhanced SOLTECH platform, in development with a software partner.

In development

Humidity sensors

Sensor hardware being assembled for installation in the cold room.

Assembling

Remote temperature sensors

Sensors that send cold room temperature data remotely, so the team can monitor storage conditions from anywhere.

In development

Online ads and marketing

Campaigns Work on Progress across several platforms to raise awareness.

Work on Progress

Play Store and App Store release

The app is due to be ready in November, then published to both stores.

Due November

Cold room in service

Customers already use the Hub around the clock, and 14 more market women are ready to join.

Operating

Remote temperature monitoring, live from the cold room

A sensor unit mounted inside the cold room records temperature, humidity, battery level and solar input every 20 minutes and sends each reading to an online dashboard. The team can see storage conditions from anywhere and act before produce is at risk.

  • 3.7–10.4°CTemperature range over 24 hours
  • 4.8°CAverage temperature
  • 144Readings a day
The sensor on the cold storage wall, and its live dashboard

Cooling as a Service, for the people who feed Abuja

Tomatoes and leafy vegetables spoil fast in Abuja's heat, and most small traders have no reliable power. SOLTECH runs entirely on solar, so a trader can keep produce cold overnight and sell it the next day instead of discounting it or throwing it away.

Our first agreement with Garki Market covered storage for traders (B2B). The market leadership has now backed a second line: fresh-food delivery straight to customers (B2C).

Get in touch
Inside the SOLTECH cold room: baskets of tomatoes on shelves

Field stories

Garki Market Association

We met the market leadership, explained the project and applied what ASCEND taught us: find the pain point, create demand, and offer a solution that grows sales. They have now backed our B2C food-delivery service as well as storage for traders.

See the fieldwork

SOLTECH Hub Project Team · Market discovery, 30 Mar to 30 Jul 2026

Lion's Den, Accra

All 21 funded university teams and their industry partners spent three days at the British Council in Accra pitching to investors and stakeholders. Our pitch drew strong questions and good traction, and the ASCEND UK team committed to working with the University of Abuja on future funded projects.

See the photos

ASCEND Investor & Innovation Showcase · 29 Jun to 1 Jul 2026

Pitching SOLTECH Hub on stage at the Lion's Den in Accra

What got in the way

Few people in Abuja's markets had heard of the Hub. We are fixing that with regular market visits, word of mouth through the traders already using it, and social media. Fieldwork also overlapped with exams, so the team finished early to give the full nine weeks to market discovery.

See the timeline

Challenges from the field · Mid-programme report, August 2026

A busy Abuja produce market during fieldwork

Our ask to the mentors

"We would greatly appreciate it if we can be mentored and supported by our Mentors and the Programme Team after the completion of this IAU ASCEND Programme until our SOLTECH Hub Project becomes commercially viable."

Meet the team

SOLTECH Hub Project Team · Survey response to the programme team

Customers bagging fresh vegetables from the cold room

Programme timeline, March to November 2026

Phase 1 ran from the online bootcamp on 23 March to the end of fieldwork on 30 July. Phase 2, the technical build, started on 3 August.

CompleteIn progressUpcoming

  1. ASCEND online bootcamp

    Five days on the Business Model Canvas, market validation, investor pitching and customer discovery planning.

  2. Customer and market discovery begins

    Field visits to farmers, Garki and other Abuja food markets, and policy stakeholders.

  3. Pitch practice and feedback

    Progress pitch to ASCEND mentors and IAU facilitators, led by the iCURE Programme Coordinator.

  4. Financial modelling and valuation

    Funding strategy, valuation basics and investor readiness.

  5. Main fieldwork after exams

    Nine weeks of questionnaires, onboarding and B2C food-delivery groundwork with Garki Market.

  6. Lion's Den pitch, Accra

    21 university teams pitched to investors and stakeholders at the British Council in Ghana.

  7. Intellectual property training

    Protecting products, technology and brand as the venture grows.

  8. Phase 2: technical build

    Mobile app, website, humidity sensors and backend integration for the AI-enhanced SOLTECH platform.

What our mentors told us, six lessons we're taking forward

  1. Think big, start small

    Grow one part of the business model at a time, learning and reskilling as the project matures.

  2. Know the market

    Understanding TAM, SAM, SOM and the ideal customer profile builds investor confidence.

  3. Referrals are the cheapest marketing

    Word of mouth works for subscription models and nearly every other model too.

  4. A business is worth what someone will pay

    Raise the value of the service with value propositions customers can measure.

  5. Pitch the problem, the team and the numbers

    Investors want the problem, the solution, the team's capability and financials known very well.

  6. Do due diligence on investors

    Understand share classes and control, and use lawyers who know financial risk.

Team and supporters, the people behind SOLTECH Hub

University of Abuja Sustainable Development Centre

  • Nneka J-OgbonnaTeam lead, doctoral student
  • Silas DivineR&D team
  • Esther NwekeR&D team
  • Bello OpeyemiR&D team
  • Dahiru Muhammad HamzaR&D team

Partners and supervision

  • netuneatlanticIndustry partner led by Mr. Jasper
  • Prof. Hakeem FawehinmiVice Chancellor
  • Prof. Gobna WafureDirector, SDC
  • Prof. Sunday IshayaPrincipal Investigator
  • British Council IAUEnterprise & Innovation Team, Africa

Get in touch, we'd love to hear from you

Tell us a little about yourself and what you're interested in: storing produce at the Hub, partnering with us, investing, or bringing SOLTECH to your market.