KEY POINTS
- Nigeria has 53 large-scale solar projects worth $11 billion currently underway across the country.
- The federal government targets 30% renewable energy by 2030 and 82% by 2050 nationally.
- Nigeria aims to install 209,000 megawatts of solar capacity by 2050 under its net-zero plan.
Nigeria is not just talking about solar energy anymore. It is building it.
The country has 53 large-scale solar power projects currently underway, with a combined value of approximately $11 billion, according to a new report by Infrastructure Intelligence Reports. The projects form part of a growing pipeline of renewable energy investments designed to strengthen Nigeria’s electricity mix and expand access to power in communities that have long been left behind.
The scale of the pipeline reflects a significant shift in investor confidence. Nigeria has historically struggled to attract sustained capital into its electricity sector. The volume of projects now underway suggests that calculation is changing.
The federal government has set a target of 30 percent renewable energy contribution to the national grid by 2030. That rises to 82 percent by 2050, as part of Nigeria’s broader net-zero 2060 commitment. Solar sits at the center of both targets.
A 209,000MW solar target by 2050
The numbers behind Nigeria’s long-term energy vision are ambitious. The country is targeting 209,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity by 2050. That figure represents a near-complete transformation of how Nigeria generates and distributes electricity, moving away from gas-dominated generation toward a solar-led system.
Most of the future capacity growth in Nigeria’s official planning documents is expected to come from solar energy. The 53 projects currently tracked by IIR are the leading edge of that transition, not the full picture.
Nigeria installed 803 megawatts of solar capacity in 2025, bringing its total installed solar base to approximately 1.19 gigawatts, according to the Global Solar Council’s Africa Market Outlook. Decentralized systems account for around 96 percent of current installations, reflecting a market dominated by off-grid and mini-grid solutions rather than utility-scale plants. The $11 billion pipeline represents a push toward larger, grid-connected infrastructure.
Why the pipeline matters now
Nigeria’s electricity access problem remains severe. The World Bank estimates that approximately 86.8 million Nigerians lacked access to electricity as recently as 2023, the highest number of any country in the world. Every megawatt added to the grid or to decentralized systems narrows that gap.
The regulatory environment has also improved. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s 2026 Mini-Grid Regulations raised the allowable capacity threshold for mini-grids from one megawatt to five megawatts, and up to 10 megawatts for interconnected systems. That change has opened the door to larger projects and attracted new categories of investors who previously found the Nigerian market too constrained to enter at meaningful scale.
