NASENI: Nigeria Must Build Clean Energy Technologies

Nigeria must shift from merely deploying renewable energy technologies to manufacturing them locally, a move that Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, argues is crucial for the country's industrial development. Halilu warned that continued dependence on imports is significantly slowing down Nigeria's progress.

Speaking at the Mustapha Abdullahi Energy Leadership Fellowship in Abuja, Halilu emphasized that Nigeria's clean energy future hinges on building an integrated ecosystem. This ecosystem, he explained, must combine innovation, manufacturing, research, policy, financing, and human capital, rather than focusing solely on the deployment of existing technologies. He highlighted the immense energy challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, where over 600 million people lack access to clean energy, and the continent requires an estimated $15 billion annually to bridge this gap by 2035.

Halilu expressed deep concern over Nigeria's escalating reliance on imported renewable energy technologies. He revealed that in 2025 alone, Nigeria spent over 400 billion naira importing solar technologies, with the figure exceeding 200 billion naira in just the first half of 2026. "These are not just import statistics; they represent factories that were never built, jobs that were never created, and opportunities that left our economy," he stated, underscoring the economic drain of this import dependency.

He stressed that energy infrastructure alone cannot industrialize a nation. Sustainable development, according to Halilu, requires a synergistic system where technology creation, manufacturing, innovation, policy, financing, and skilled manpower work in concert. This philosophy underpins NASENI's transformation agenda, guided by its 3Cs Strategy: Creation, Collaboration, and Commercialisation. The agency is actively developing technologies for local challenges, fostering partnerships for technology transfer and capacity building, and commercializing research to ensure innovations translate into tangible products that improve lives. A flagship initiative is the 40-hectare Solar Industrial Park in Gora, Nasarawa State, aimed at localizing solar panel production.

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In 2025 alone, Nigeria spent over ₦400 billion importing solar technologies. In just the first half of 2026, that figure had already exceeded ₦200 billion. These are not just import statistics; they represent factories that were never built, jobs that were never created, and opportunities that left our economy.