Transforming Smallholder Agriculture Into Nigeria’s Growth Engine

Picture a modern metropolis that powers its high-rise towers, industrial complexes, and digital networks not through a central grid, but by pressing millions of exhausted citizens into service on stationary exercise bicycles every morning. Millions pedal furiously from dawn to dusk, sweating away their physical vitality simply to generate enough voltage to keep the streetlights flickering. When the system predictably sputters, state planners do not build modern power stations or lay high-voltage transmission lines. Instead, they organize televised ceremonies to hand out lighter pedals, offer tiny credit lines for padded bike seats, and praise the pedallers for their heroic resilience. We ...