Photo voltaic panel imports drop as native manufacturing surges

Nigeria has entered a brand new part of clean-energy industrialisation, because the nation imported fewer completed photo voltaic panels in October 2025, whereas native manufacturing capability accelerated underneath current coverage reforms, the Rural Electrification Company has stated.

In an announcement on Sunday, the Managing Director of REA, Abba Aliyu, described the event as a “historic industrial shift,” noting that the nation imported 110 megawatts of photo voltaic cells in comparison with 82MW of completed photo voltaic panels through the interval.

Aliyu stated this was the primary time in Nigeria’s historical past that photo voltaic cell imports focused at native meeting had surpassed the importation of totally assembled panels. In line with him, this alteration is greater than a commerce statistic however “a structural sign that Nigeria is transferring from shopping for clean-energy options to constructing them.”

“Once we import completed panels, a lot of the worth stays offshore. However once we import cells and assemble regionally, 60–70 per cent of the worth is created right here in frames, glass, backsheets, junction containers, encapsulation, lamination, testing, logistics, and expert labour.

That’s how industries develop, Aliyu said.

He famous that the milestone was recorded shortly after Nigeria hosted the inaugural Nigeria Renewable Vitality Innovation Discussion board in October, with the theme, ‘Implementing the Nigeria First Coverage.’

The REA boss added that between January and November 2025 alone, “Nigeria imported extra photo voltaic cells for native manufacturing than in all earlier years mixed,” reflecting a degree of market response that stakeholders had been working in the direction of for years.

Aliyu harassed that the result was not unintentional however the consequence of coordinated reforms and political will on the highest ranges of presidency.

“This shift didn’t occur by chance. It displays the visionary management of President Bola Tinubu, driving the Renewed Hope Agenda and its ‘Nigeria First Coverage’, which locations native content material, home business, and financial sovereignty on the centre of nationwide improvement,” he stated

He additionally attributed the momentum to the federal government’s financial reforms, which he stated had been restoring investor confidence, in addition to ongoing interventions within the energy sector underneath the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.

Critically, he pointed to the catalytic influence of the NREIF, which he stated performed a serious position in unlocking funding. “On the NREIF, chaired by the Vice President, the REA facilitated off-take commitments and catalysed practically $500m in manufacturing and supply-chain offers,” he added.

Aliyu defined that these mixed actions had created an alignment Nigeria had lacked for years, saying, “We now have clear coverage course, investor-ready reforms, institutional coordination, and a market lastly responding to confidence, not likelihood.”

He emphasised that the development towards clean-energy industrialisation was unfolding in actual time. Recall that Nigeria just lately exported photo voltaic panels to Ghana.