Bankable projects, reliable technology and strong local technical support are critical to sustaining Nigeria’s growing solar market, industry experts and operators have said.
They also warned that inadequate project preparation and substandard equipment could undermine investor confidence and slow the country’s energy transition.
They said Nigeria’s expanding solar market presented significant investment opportunities, but urged developers to demonstrate the commercial viability of projects, establish sound financial structures and guarantee reliable equipment performance to attract the long-term financing required to sustain growth.
The experts spoke against the backdrop of Africa’s estimated $28bn to $46bn renewable energy investment requirement to expand electricity access to about 150 million people through mini-grids and other renewable energy solutions.
Speaking ahead of the Renewable Energy Forum Africa (REFA) 2026 in Lagos, industry representatives stressed that increasing electricity access alone would not be sufficient to attract the capital required to develop the sector.
The representatives included Esther Eyenobong, Senior Sales Manager, West Africa, Jinko Solar; Ruth Iye Ifah, Sales Manager, JA Solar; Taiwo Adewale, Business Development Manager, Nigeria, AIKO Energy; Ololade Raji, Technical Services Manager, AlphaESS; and Olamide Niyi-Afuye, Chief Executive Officer, Africa Mini-grid Developers Association.
The forum is scheduled for November 25 and 26, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
According to the operators, renewable energy developers must move beyond presenting electricity access as a development imperative and focus on projects capable of delivering measurable economic benefits, sustainable financial returns and reliable power supply.
“Capital will not flow at the required scale simply because development cases can be better. Projects must be commercially viable and bankable,” they said.
Figures presented by Benjamin Clark, Director of Operations, Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA), showed that Nigeria had approximately 620 megawatts of operational solar capacity, making it the largest market in West Africa by installed capacity.
Clark said that annual solar installations in the country, had increased from about 15 megawatts in 2019 to approximately 123 megawatts in 2024.
Although annual additions declined to around 79 megawatts in 2025, he said approximately 89 megawatts had become operational in 2026, while another 115 megawatts were under construction.
Completion of the projects could push new solar capacity additions beyond 200 megawatts in 2026, potentially making it the country’s strongest year for solar deployment based on AFSIA’s figures.
He said Nigeria’s commercial and industrial solar segment had also expanded as manufacturers, hotels, offices and other businesses increasingly adopted renewable energy to reduce dependence on diesel generators and improve electricity reliability.
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According to Clark, the segment had grown by an average of 32 per cent annually since 2021, with Nigeria recording approximately 82 megawatts of commercial and industrial solar installations in 2024, making it Africa’s second-largest market behind South Africa.
Nigeria also leads Africa in solar mini-grid capacity, with approximately 132 megawatts, representing 31 per cent of the continent’s total.
However, Raji of AlphaESS said sustaining the expansion would require developers and engineering, procurement and construction contractors to prepare projects with clear financial structures, sound technical designs, viable repayment arrangements and credible feasibility studies before approaching investors.
He said investors also needed confidence that projects could be deployed, maintained and operated by competent local technical teams.
He warned that unreliable equipment and inadequate after-sales services could undermine investor confidence, stressing the importance of local service centres, spare-parts availability and technology designed for Nigerian operating conditions.
“We don’t want Nigeria to be a dumping ground,” he said, urging equipment manufacturers to provide reliable systems backed by adequate technical support.
Raji added that renewable energy investments should be assessed beyond installed capacity, particularly their long-term economic contributions, including keeping factories operational, protecting healthcare services and improving business productivity.
Meanwhile, Eyenobong of Jinko Solar disclosed that the company had signed framework agreements covering more than 600 megawatts with Nigerian partners in 2026 for projects targeting commercial, industrial and residential rooftops.
She said the agreements reflected growing demand for solar solutions and the importance of long-term partnerships in expanding deployment.
She cited the company’s projects at the National Theatre in Lagos, comprising a 2.5-megawatt solar photovoltaic installation and a 4.8-megawatt energy storage system, as examples of the growing application of solar and storage technology.
On regulatory support, Clark said new mini-grid regulations introduced in April allowed standalone mini-grids of up to five megawatts and grid-connected mini-grids of up to 10 megawatts, while smaller systems benefited from simplified registration requirements.
He also highlighted net-billing rules introduced in June, allowing eligible businesses operating solar systems between 50 kilowatts and 1.5 megawatts to export excess electricity to the grid in exchange for bill credits.
The $300m Distributed Renewable Energy Fund and the $750m Distributed Energy Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up programme were also identified as initiatives intended to support smaller renewable energy projects and expand electricity access.
Clark said Lagos was particularly important to the investment drive because of its substantial electricity shortfall and efforts to develop an independent state electricity market.
He said the state had estimated electricity demand at approximately 12 gigawatts, against supply of around one gigawatt from the national grid, creating significant opportunities for embedded generation and other private-sector electricity solutions.
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