….eyes 3.7 GW solar manufacturing capacity by 2027
Abba Aliyu, managing director, Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has noted the ongoing structural transition in Nigeria’s off-grid electricity sector, from small-scale pilot projects to a bankable, utility-style market following key regulatory interventions by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Speaking in Abuja during a knowledge-exchange visit by the Zanzibar Utilities Regulatory Authority (ZURA), Aliyu said that the shift has paved the way for the construction of 48 interconnected mini-grid (IMG) sites across 19 states, cutting across 10 Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).
Aliyu noted that the interconnected mini-grid projects cut across 10 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) and are being rolled out as one unified programme under the Interconnected Mini-Grid (IMG) regulatory framework introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
According to Aliyu, the scheme is expected to deliver 252,505 new and improved electricity connections when completed, alongside 213.3 megawatts-peak (MWp) of solar photovoltaic capacity, 166.1 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage and 82.5 megawatts of peak load.
“The mini-grid regulations last year had a cap of 1 megawatt. We can’t build a mini-grid above 1 megawatt. What we showed the regulator, the economics and the technical data, they changed the regulation. Now we can build a mini-grid of up to 10 megawatts interconnected and 5 megawatts isolated,” he said.
He said the regulatory change had opened the door for larger, more bankable projects and helped reshape the market from a contractor-led space into one increasingly driven by developers and utility-scale operators.
“We are no more contractors. They come, fix all, do this. But when we created that ecosystem and opportunity, they started transition from contractors to developers. And now that we have 1,350 mini-grids, we ask them that you have to start to move from developers to a utility-scale managed company,” he added.
Aliyu said the REA now works with more than 150 Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs) some of which already manage portfolios of around 30 megawatts and are increasingly expanding beyond Nigeria.
He said the reforms were not limited to regulation alone, but were also supported by a much broader planning and data strategy designed to target communities and productive-use assets more precisely.
According to him, the agency has mapped more than 700,000 communities nationwide, alongside 51,022 hospitals, 11,129 markets, 170 schools, 7,979 factories, 407 functioning mini-grids, 57 dams and 2,194 feeders across distribution company networks.
Aliyu said the data-driven approach is intended to determine the least-cost way of electrifying each location, whether through solar home systems, isolated or interconnected mini-grids, or grid extension.
He explained that the agency no longer treats rural electrification as a blanket exercise in which all communities are served the same way, saying the new model is based on demand, population density, cost and long-term commercial viability.
“What you are seeing is not just the map of Nigeria with colour. Behind the map are layers and layers and layers of data that give us a direction of how we should interact and when we should interact and how we should interact and where should we intervene,” he said.
Aliyu said the approach is especially important because Nigeria still faces a major electricity access gap. He said the country’s access rate stands at 61.2 per cent, leaving about 80 million people without electricity, adding that many of them are not only unserved but also underserved, receiving fewer than six hours of supply a day.
He said the REA’s work is therefore focused on both expanding access and improving reliability in communities that are already connected but poorly served.
The REA boss also linked electricity access to wider economic growth, arguing that inadequate power supply has contributed to the decline of manufacturing and other productive activities in parts of the country.
He cited the southwestern and northwestern regions, where he said there were about 250 to 300 factories in the 1980s, compared with only 40 to 70 functioning factories today, with the drop in electricity and investment affecting jobs and industrial output.
Beyond access, Aliyu said the agency is also preparing Nigeria for a future in which electricity demand will rise sharply because of population growth, the electrification of everything and the energy needs of artificial intelligence and data centres.
He added that the world’s biggest economies are already planning around that shift, and that Nigeria must do the same if it wants to benefit from the next phase of energy growth.
Aliyu also said the REA is working to expand local solar manufacturing, noting that the country is expected to hit 3.7 gigawatts of manufacturing capacity by the end of next year, while some Nigerian photovoltaic panel manufacturers have already begun exporting to Ghana.
He said the long-term goal is to reduce dependence on imported solar products, attract Chinese manufacturers to set up in Nigeria and build a stronger domestic value chain around renewable energy equipment.
The agency maintained that the mini-grid programme and the broader electrification strategy are central to Nigeria’s goal of achieving universal electricity access by 2060.
In his remarks, William Gboney, leader of the ZURA delegation, and a World Bank Consultant at ZURA, said the visit was aimed at facilitating knowledge exchange on system dispatch, grid stability management, balancing operations and coordination mechanism in Nigeria.
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