The Federal Government, through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), has signed a strategic partnership with global off-grid solar company Sun King to expand renewable energy access, promote local manufacturing, and save Nigeria up to $150 million in solar equipment imports over the next five years.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed during the Nigeria Renewable Energy Innovation Forum in Abuja, in the presence of Vice President Kashim Shettima and Sun King’s Co-founder and CEO, Patrick Walsh.
The agreement represents a major push toward industrialising Nigeria’s clean energy sector through stronger public–private collaboration.
According to the statement, Sun King estimates that, with the right policy and regulatory support, its planned local manufacturing facilities could substitute solar imports worth $150 million within five years, while fostering greater cooperation between the government and private sector to build a sustainable local manufacturing ecosystem.
Vice President Shettima reaffirmed the Tinubu administration’s commitment to attracting more private investment in renewable energy through improved incentives and streamlined regulations.
“To unlock Nigeria’s full energy transition potential, we need our private sector, industrialists, and innovators to take bold steps forward,” he said.
“We are enhancing incentives for local manufacturing, simplifying regulatory frameworks, and partnering with state governments and development agencies to de-risk private capital and accelerate a self-sustaining renewable energy market.”
The partnership focuses on three main pillars: local manufacturing and value addition, data-driven collaboration, and joint advocacy for off-grid solar as a core component of Nigeria’s energy transition.
Under the local production plan, REA and Sun King will collaborate to assemble solar panels, home systems, and energy-efficient appliances, including freezers and televisions within Nigeria.
This aligns with the Nigeria First Policy, which aims to create jobs, build local capacity, and reduce dependence on imported energy products.
Sun King projects that, with the right incentives, local production could replace $150 million worth of imports and create thousands of jobs across manufacturing, logistics, and after-sales services.
REA Managing Director Abba Abubakar Aliyu described the initiative as a merger of “energy access, industrial growth, and supportive policy into one unified push for Nigeria’s clean energy future.”
“Sun King was our largest partner under the Nigeria Electrification Programme,” he said.
“This next phase takes the collaboration further by integrating industrialisation and policy alignment into our shared renewable energy vision.”
The second component of the partnership will enhance data sharing and technical collaboration, enabling both parties to use market insights and performance data to strengthen national programmes such as the Nigeria Electrification Project and the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) initiative.
These insights will also support Mission 300, a global initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, with Nigeria expected to play a leading role.
The third focus area involves public awareness and policy advocacy, positioning standalone solar systems as a central pillar of Nigeria’s energy mix.
REA and Sun King will promote policies that attract private financing and highlight the transformative impact of solar power in rural and peri-urban areas.
Sun King, which currently sells over 330,000 solar kits monthly across Africa, has seen rapid growth in Nigeria from 3,000 units monthly in 2020 to about 75,000 units per month today.
The company plans to triple its Nigerian sales in the coming years to meet growing demand for affordable and reliable electricity.
Sun King’s Co-founder, Patrick Walsh, said the partnership reflects a shared vision between the private sector and government.
“This partnership unites two powerful goals Mission 300 and Nigeria’s industrialisation drive,” Walsh said. “It’s about making clean energy affordable, unlocking manufacturing opportunities, and using shared data to strengthen Nigeria’s renewable energy and electronics industries.”
Sun King has already created over 12,000 jobs in Nigeria across engineering, sales, analytics, and customer service.
The new deal is expected to deepen this impact through local assembly, component manufacturing, and supply chain expansion.
Experts say the collaboration could serve as a model for other African countries seeking to combine renewable energy growth with industrial development.
It also reinforces the alignment between President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and global sustainability targets.
With about 85 million Nigerians still without access to electricity, the World Bank estimates that scaling up off-grid and hybrid solar systems alongside local manufacturing that could significantly expand energy access while cutting foreign exchange losses from imports.
