Ten years ago, we weren’t ColdHubs yet. We were just a dream, a reaction to the pain we saw in Nigerian markets where fresh food gave up and let the sun do its work. We remember it very well: The Farin Gada Market in 2013. Mountains of cabbages are going bad and becoming trash. The farmers we met there didn’t complain; they begged, “We need storage to sell later.” That simple request cut to the heart of us and changed our lives forever.
The Spark That Started a Movement
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, our founder, had seen it all. As a radio host for an agricultural show, he traveled around Nigeria and met farmers. He listened to their problems and learned things that books couldn’t teach him. But that moment, when the cabbages were going bad, was different. It wasn’t a part for radio. It was a call to action.
We built our first cold room in 2014 with only grit and scrap metal. It wasn’t very nice. It wasn’t great. But it worked. People who didn’t believe laughed. Investors were unsure. Farmers were unsure of what to do. So we promised: Try it out for free. Look for yourself. And they did. When fruits and vegetables that used to go bad after two days stayed fresh for 21 days, people opened their mouths and eyes and trusted the product.
Building the Cold Revolution
2015 was our launch year, and we didn’t just bring cold rooms; we brought hope. Our Cooling-as-a-Service model changed the game; it was revolutionary. Tomato traders and cabbage growers now had a chance to win. Women, who are the heart of Nigeria’s fresh food economy, became managers and leaders. They ran hubs, made money, and broke through barriers.
Our Compass Innovation
We advanced in 2023. In an effort to be more sustainable, ColdHubs 2.0 replaced batteries with ice-based cooling by tracking crates, locating buyers, and transforming cold rooms into bustling marketplaces.
ColdHubs went beyond cold rooms. In order to guarantee that food travels safely and that farmers’ labor never goes bad, we introduced refrigerated trucks to our services, which carry the same promise of freshness on the road. In order to help farmers handle and package their produce with care and minimize waste and bruises, we introduced plastic crates. In order to keep opportunities alive, fish fresh, and drinks cool, we started producing ice blocks for businesses.
The Influence You Assist Us With We saved 3,932,560 kg of CO₂ emissions in 2023 alone, stored more than 3 million kg of fresh produce, and demonstrated that technology could successfully compete with tradition And now… Ten Years Later, We’re Only Beginning What a journey, from the dirt floors of a rural market to 58 hubs in 28 states. However, the journey ahead is exciting. Our goal is to have hundreds of ColdHubs spread throughout Africa by 2030. Because all farmers should be able to sell later and every shelf life deserves to be saved.
A Message from the Founder/CEO
I am humbled, thankful, and in awe of what this journey has become as we commemorate ColdHubs’ tenth anniversary. The movement that started as a desperate cry at Farin Gada Market in 2013—”We need storage to sell later”—has expanded to include thousands of people throughout Nigeria and beyond. We are grateful to our amazing customers who, despite the fact that it seemed impossible, believed in the potential of cold storage. Thanks to your confidence, our prototypes became lifelines that doubled your profits and helped lower post-harvest losses. In addition to preserving your produce, you have also preserved your hope.
You are the lifeblood of ColdHubs, our hardworking staff. You are the epitome of tenacity and creativity, from the engineers who constructed our solar-powered cold rooms to the brave women running markets and farm hubs. You have embraced new technologies, overcome obstacles, and never forgotten the farmer. This success belongs to you as much as it does to ColdHubs. You created impact, community, and trust in addition to cold rooms. You’ve transformed obstacles into opportunities and aspirations into answers.
We are grateful to our partners and sponsors for joining us on this journey. Your support has increased our impact. In 2023 alone, we saved almost 4 million kilograms of carbon emissions and stored more than 3 million kilograms of produce. We’re not just cooling food thanks to you; we’re also empowering local economies, lowering global temperatures, and reinventing sustainability in Africa. Change has been sparked by your belief in our vision.
I encourage everyone to join us in dreaming even bigger as we look to another dcedes of impact, when we have the audacious goal of deploying hundreds of ColdHubs throughout Africa. Our purpose is still to serve the planet we all share, the women who trade with strength, and the farmers who provide for us. I want to express my gratitude to you for joining me on this amazing, daring, and transformative journey. One solar-powered chill at a time, the next chapter is about to begin.
Download our decade of impact brochure