KEY POINTS
- Nigeria exported N85.7 billion worth of solar panels to five countries in Q1 2026.
- The US bought the most at N34.23 billion, followed by Burkina Faso at N20.40 billion.
- REA expanded Nigeria’s solar panel production capacity from 120 megawatts to 300 megawatts.
Nigeria is no longer just buying solar panels. It is selling them.
New data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that Nigeria exported N85.7 billion worth of photovoltaic cells assembled in modules or made up into panels in the first quarter of 2026. The buyers were the United States, Burkina Faso, India, Indonesia and Ghana. That makes Nigeria a net solar panel exporter in Q1, even as the country imported N435.52 billion worth of the product in 2025.
The United States topped the buyer list at N34.23 billion. Burkina Faso followed at N20.40 billion, India at N13.85 billion, Indonesia at N12.71 billion and Ghana at N2.96 billion.
What drove the shift
The turnaround did not happen by accident. The Rural Electrification Agency has been at the center of a deliberate push to localize solar panel manufacturing rather than just deploying imported products. The World Bank-funded Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up project, known as DARES, allocated $300 million to that effort, with partnerships involving FCMB, Lotus Bank and InfraCorp providing grants, low-interest loans and offtake agreements to companies building domestic manufacturing capacity.
In May 2026, the REA allocated approximately $425 million to establish eight new renewable energy manufacturing facilities. Solar panel production capacity has grown from 120 megawatts two years ago to 300 megawatts. Imports of solar cells and components for local assembly jumped to 837 megawatts in 2025, more than double the cumulative 375 megawatts from all prior years combined, a sign that the supply chain is being built locally rather than imported finished.
Nigeria as a regional supplier
REA Managing Director Dr. Abba Aliyu described the Q1 export figure as a direct outcome of President Bola Tinubu’s Nigeria First Policy, which prioritizes local content development and domestic manufacturing. He said 2025 was a defining year for the sector.
Nigeria is now exporting locally made solar panels from Lagos to Accra and consulting with countries including Mozambique, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania on replicating the model. Aliyu described the shift plainly. “We are transitioning from a renewable energy consumer to a regional supplier,” he said.
