Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) says that the country imported fewer finished solar panels in October 2025 as local manufacturing capacity accelerated under the recent policy reforms.
The Managing Director of REA, Abba Aliyu, said in a statement on Sunday that the development was a “historic industrial shift,” and that Nigeria imported 110 megawatts of solar cells compared to 82MW of finished solar panels during the period.
Aliyu disclosed that this was the first time in Nigeria’s history that solar cell imports targeted at local assembly had surpassed the importation of fully assembled panels.
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.”
“When we import finished panels, most of the value stays offshore. But when we import cells and assemble locally, 60–70 per cent of the value is created here in frames, glass, backsheets, junction boxes, encapsulation, lamination, testing, logistics, and skilled labour. That’s how industries grow,,” Aliyu stated.
He said 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.’
He 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’, which places local content, domestic industry, and economic sovereignty at the centre of national development,” he said
GIK/APA