Ecotutu

Ecotutu is a Nigerian cleantech and agricultural cold-chain company focused on reducing post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables. Founded in 2020 by Babajide Oluwase and Michael Akinsete, the company developed a model intended to make temperature-controlled storage available to farmers and traders who may not have reliable access to conventional refrigeration or grid electricity. The company operates in the food and agricultural value chain, with particular relevance to small-scale and large-scale farmers, open markets, and farm clusters. Its core service is described as “pay-as-you-chill” storage: users pay for access to cooling rather than purchasing and maintaining their own cold-room infrastructure. This service model is designed to lower the upfront cost of preservation and to make cold storage more practical in locations where electricity supply, capital, and logistics infrastructure are constrained. Ecotutu’s storage systems use solar power and evaporation-based cooling technology. The approach links renewable energy with distributed cold storage, allowing cooling facilities to be deployed outside conventional industrial refrigeration networks. By extending the usable life of perishable produce, the company aims to help farmers and food sellers protect inventory, improve the timing of sales, and reduce losses between harvest and consumption. Its activities place it at the intersection of climate technology, agricultural services, food security, and public health-related cold-chain infrastructure. Ecotutu has been recognized in several entrepreneurship and innovation programs. In 2021, it was listed among ten finalists associated with the United Nations World Food Programme. In 2022, it was named among the top three finalists at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and won the Zenith Bank FutureForward Tech Fair, receiving a reported prize of N20 million. These recognitions provided visibility for the company’s approach to decentralized, renewable-powered food preservation. The company’s operations are described as spanning multiple locations across Nigerian states, including open markets and clusters of farms. Rather than functioning only as an equipment manufacturer, Ecotutu presents itself as a cooling-as-a-service provider. Its business proposition therefore depends on the deployment and operation of storage facilities, the aggregation of local agricultural demand, and recurring usage by producers and traders. Publicly available information identifies Ecotutu primarily as a Nigeria-focused enterprise. Detailed information about its current ownership, revenue, workforce, headquarters, geographic scale, technology specifications, and expansion beyond Nigeria is not established in the supplied reference material. Accordingly, the brand is best characterized as an active Nigerian agricultural-cleantech company whose principal offering is distributed solar-powered cold storage.

Ecotutu was established in Nigeria in 2020 by Babajide Oluwase and Michael Akinsete. The company emerged as a cleantech venture addressing the difficulty of preserving fruits and vegetables in developing-country agricultural systems. Its work is connected to the broader challenge of post-harvest loss, in which produce can deteriorate before it reaches consumers because farmers and traders lack dependable refrigeration, electricity, transport, or storage infrastructure. From its early development, Ecotutu focused on solar-powered cooling rather than relying exclusively on conventional grid-connected refrigeration. Its systems use solar energy together with evaporation-based cooling technology. This model is suited to locations where grid power is intermittent or unavailable and where a conventional cold room would be too expensive for individual producers to acquire. The company’s approach is therefore both technological and service-oriented: it seeks to place shared cooling capacity close to farms and food markets while allowing users to pay for the amount of cooling they need. Ecotutu describes this commercial model as “pay-as-you-chill.” Under this arrangement, farmers and other users access storage without bearing the full capital and operating burden of owning a cold-storage facility. The model is intended to serve both small-scale and larger agricultural producers, as well as traders handling perishable fruits and vegetables. By providing cooling at open markets and farm clusters, Ecotutu aims to connect preservation infrastructure with the points at which produce is harvested, aggregated, sold, or temporarily held. The company received external recognition during its early years. In 2021, it was included among ten finalists associated with the United Nations World Food Programme. In 2022, it became one of the top three finalists at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. During the same year, Ecotutu won the Zenith Bank FutureForward Tech Fair and reportedly secured a N20 million prize. These milestones indicate that the company was regarded by the cited programs as an example of technology-enabled entrepreneurship with potential relevance to food security, climate resilience, and agricultural productivity. Operational descriptions place Ecotutu at multiple sites across Nigerian states. Its facilities are presented as cooling-as-a-service locations in open markets and farm clusters rather than as a single centralized warehouse network. This distributed model allows the brand to target fragmented agricultural supply chains and customers whose produce may otherwise remain exposed to heat and rapid spoilage. Ecotutu’s historical significance within the supplied material lies in its attempt to combine renewable energy, decentralized infrastructure, and usage-based pricing. The company is not described as a conventional consumer-goods brand; its identity is primarily that of a business-to-business and agricultural-services provider. Public information supplied for this dossier does not establish its current management structure, ownership, revenue, number of facilities, detailed technical specifications, or operations outside Nigeria. Its present status is therefore recorded as active, with Nigeria as the documented operating market.

• 2022

  Global Entrepreneurship Summit finalist

  [1]Ecotutuen.wikipedia.org

  Ecotutu was named among the top three finalists at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

• 2022

  Zenith Bank FutureForward Tech Fair winner

  [1]Ecotutuen.wikipedia.org

  Ecotutu won the Zenith Bank FutureForward Tech Fair and received a reported N20 million prize.

• 2021

  Recognition in a United Nations World Food Programme-related finalist group

  [1]Ecotutuen.wikipedia.org

  Ecotutu was listed among ten finalists in a United Nations World Food Programme-related initiative.

• 2020

  Ecotutu founded in Nigeria

  [1]Ecotutuen.wikipedia.org

  Babajide Oluwase and Michael Akinsete founded Ecotutu as a cleantech company focused on solar-powered preservation of fruits and vegetables.

A Nigerian agricultural-cleantech provider that makes renewable-powered cold storage accessible to farmers and food-market operators through a pay-per-use cooling model.

• Cooling-as-a-service

  Pay-as-you-chill storage

  Ecotutu’s principal service allows farmers and food traders to pay for access to cooling and storage rather than purchasing a complete cold-storage installation. The usage-based model is intended to reduce upfront costs and make temperature-controlled preservation available to customers operating with limited capital or unreliable electricity. It is designed for perishable fruits and vegetables and can be deployed in agricultural communities, farm clusters, and open-market environments.

• Agricultural cold chain

  Solar-powered cold storage

  Ecotutu provides solar-powered storage facilities for the preservation of fruits and vegetables. The systems are intended for locations where grid electricity may be unreliable or unavailable, using renewable energy to support cooling close to production and trading points. Public descriptions identify the facilities as serving both small-scale and large-scale farmers, as well as users in open markets and farm clusters.

• Cooling technology

  Evaporation-based cooling technology

  The company’s documented cooling approach incorporates solar-powered evaporation technology. It is used as part of Ecotutu’s distributed food-storage solution and is intended to extend the useful life of produce in warm environments. Detailed technical specifications, capacity figures, and product-model names are not provided in the available reference material.

• 2022

  Acceptance of Zenith Bank FutureForward Tech Fair prizeOther

  Background

  Ecotutu was selected as the winner of the Zenith Bank FutureForward Tech Fair during a period of recognition for its agricultural cooling model.

  Action taken

  The company won the competition and secured a reported prize of N20 million.

  Aftermath

  The award added financial support and public recognition to Ecotutu’s early-stage cleantech development.

  Competition prize. N20 million (2022)

  Source

• 2020

  Adoption of a distributed solar cooling and pay-per-use modelStrategy

  Background

  Ecotutu was founded to address fruit and vegetable spoilage in environments where conventional cold storage and dependable grid electricity can be difficult to access.

  Action taken

  The company developed solar-powered, evaporation-based cooling facilities and offered storage through a pay-as-you-chill service for farmers and market operators.

  Aftermath

  The model positioned Ecotutu as a Nigerian agricultural-cleantech and cold-chain services company operating in farm clusters and open markets.

  Source

1. 1Ecotutuen.wikipedia.org