Solar Panel Imports Drop as Local Manufacturing Grows
The Federal Government’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has announced a milestone in Nigeria’s clean energy sector, as the country imported fewer finished solar panels in October 2025.
The agency says this is as a result of local manufacturing capacity accelerated under recent policy reforms.
In a statement, the Managing Director of REA, Abba Aliyu, described the development as a “historic industrial shift,” noting that the country imported 110 megawatts of solar cells compared to 82MW of finished solar panels during the period.
“This is the first time in Nigeria’s history that solar cell imports targeted at local assembly have surpassed the importation of fully assembled panels,” Aliyu said.
According to him, this change is more than a trade statistic but “a structural signal that Nigeria is moving from buying clean-energy solutions to building them.” He added that when Nigeria imports finished panels, most of the value stays offshore, but when it imports cells and assembles locally, 60-70% of the value is created in the country.
“That’s how industries grow,” Aliyu stated. He noted that the milestone was recorded shortly after Nigeria hosted the inaugural Nigeria Renewable Energy Innovation Forum in October, with the theme, ‘Implementing the Nigeria First Policy.’
The REA boss added that between January and November 2025 alone, “Nigeria imported more solar cells for local manufacturing than in all previous years combined,” reflecting a level of market response that stakeholders had been working towards for years.
Aliyu stressed that the outcome was not accidental but the consequence of coordinated reforms and political will at the highest levels of government. “This shift didn’t happen by accident. It reflects the visionary leadership of President Bola Tinubu, driving the Renewed Hope Agenda and its ‘Nigeria First Policy’,” he said.
The REA MD also attributed the momentum to the government’s economic reforms, which he said were restoring investor confidence, as well as ongoing interventions in the power sector under the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.