Made in Nigeria: Inside Africa's push to be solar superpower

LAGOS - In a sprawling factory in Nigeria's southern state of Cross River, dozens of young technicians swarm around a production line, picking out solar-powered batteries, fans and lamps to test for quality.

Clad in pink overalls, they package the tested products for shipment from the Salpha Energy's solar assembly plant on the outskirts of Calabar to customers throughout the West African country.

"I can see the same pride I see on the faces of engineers in factories in Tokyo and the United States, where they build things," Salpha Energy's founder Sandra Chukwudozie told Context.

"Except now it's happening here at home."

Since starting up in 2017, Salpha Energy has made solar power systems for more than two million Nigerian homes and businesses, and it aims to assemble up to 300,000 units a year, she said.

Salpha Energy is part of the green leadership in Nigeria, and the continent overall, that African representatives attending the U.N. COP30 climate summit in Brazil are keen to showcase and promote on the global stage.

"Africa is no longer the 'terrain of aid' but the frontline of solutions" in areas like renewable energy, said Carlos Lopes, the COP30 presidency's special envoy for Africa.

Among the African nations, Nigeria aims to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and generate 30% of its energy from renewables by 2030 as well as develop local manufacturing capacity.

Its national grid is now powered 75% by gas and 20% by hydropower, which is renewable, but other clean energy sources like solar, wind and biomass account for less than 2%.

In March, Nigeria signed a $200 million agreement with the World Bank and other partners to develop solar grids in rural areas as part of its efforts to meet its renewable energy targets.

Salpha Energy has landed a 2 billion Naira investment ($1.4 million) from the Nigerian non-profit energy investor All On, founded by oil giant Shell, to expand the country’s local manufacturing capacity.

Competition from Asia

Although local production is growing, manufacturers face competition from Asian powerhouses led by China that dominate the global solar supply chain with cheaper, mass-produced panels.

While the Chinese panels have jump-started Africa’s renewable roll-out, African climate leaders say the continent, which holds more than 30% of the world’s critical minerals, should be an industrial actor - not importer - in the clean energy transition.

Between June 2024 and June 2025, Nigeria imported about 1,721 MW of solar panels from China, making it the second-largest importer in Africa after South Africa, according to data from the energy think tank Ember.

China supplied about 60% of Africa's solar imports during the same period, the report said.

Lopes said money spent on importing panels, turbines and software could be used to fund African clean energy design labs and create regional research hubs where local engineers could adapt foreign technology.

Countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has more than 70% of the world’s cobalt reserves, lithium-rich Zimbabwe and manganese-rich Gabon should not only be exporting raw materials but building technologies locally, he said.

"When processing happens where the minerals lie, jobs stay, emissions drop and dignity grows," Lopes said.

"It is Africa’s route to structural transformation."

More local assembly 

Several African countries are making that transition, including Morocco, South Africa and Egypt which are ramping up production with solar assembly plants and manufacturing facilities.

Egypt is developing three manufacturing plants in collaboration with several Asian clean tech companies, including a Singaporean manufacturer, EliTe Solar, which is set to start a three-gigawatt (GW) facility this year.

In October, Nigeria signed a deal with Chinese solar PV manufacturer LONGi to build a 500 to 1,000 megawatt (MW) solar panel production factory in the country.

China’s dominance in solar manufacturing is unlikely to be displaced, owing to decades of investment, low production costs and a skilled workforce, but Africa can still make its mark, said Dave Jones, energy analyst and co-founder of the U.K.-based Ember think tank.

By importing Chinese battery cells but assembling other components locally, manufacturers can keep 60% of the value chain within their economy, he said.

"The cells cost about 40% of a panel's price. So if you're able to manufacture and do the panel assembly, you're saving over half and keeping half of that value within the country,” Jones said.

Chukwudozie said her assembly plant is a testament to Africa's ability to produce its green technologies and even export them, as it did last year to Ghana.

"We shipped out some batches of our products to Accra — by road," says Chukwudozie.

"For us, it was just to test this idea of Africa-led exports," she said. "It carries the Made in Nigeria stamp, and we can sell that across West Africa."

(Reporting by Bukola Adebayo; Editing by Jack Graham and Ellen Wulfhorst.)