Nigeria’s renewable energy sector is failing to translate strong investment inflows into significant employment opportunities, with just about 70,000 jobs created despite attracting more than $2 billion in cumulative investment, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has said.
Managing director of the REA, Abba Aliyu, said the employment figures remain far below the industry’s potential, noting that the global solar sector alone currently supports about 16.2 million jobs.
Speaking at the 2026 Oriental News Conference in Lagos, Aliyu, who was represented by the agency’s executive director of corporate services, Gboyega Ayoade, said the disparity underscores the urgent need for Nigeria to strengthen local capacity and reduce dependence on imported technologies and foreign expertise.
He argued that renewable energy policy should also function as industrial policy by promoting local participation across the clean energy value chain.
“As renewable energy deployment grows, we must also grow local capacity for assembly, manufacturing, installation, operation, maintenance, recycling and skills development,” he said.
Aliyu added that the federal government’s Nigeria First policy offers an opportunity to transform clean energy into a platform for local content development, job creation and industrial value addition.
According to him, renewable energy programmes should no longer be evaluated solely on the basis of electricity supplied but also on their ability to stimulate domestic industries and create employment.
“Does it create jobs for Nigerian engineers and technicians? Does it use local installers? Does it create demand for local assembly? Does it support Nigerian firms? Does it strengthen the supply chain? Does it improve skills and technology transfer? This is how clean energy becomes an industrial policy tool,” he said.
He disclosed that the REA is restructuring its programmes to support local manufacturing and skills development through large-scale renewable energy deployment capable of creating predictable demand for Nigerian manufacturers.
Aliyu also identified project bankability as the biggest challenge facing renewable energy investment in the country, saying many projects fail to attract financing because of weak feasibility studies, poor demand assessments, inadequate payment structures and limited risk mitigation.
“The core constraint is not potential but bankability,” he said.
He said the agency is working with development partners, financial institutions and private developers to improve project preparation through performance-based grants, blended finance, public-private partnerships and green finance platforms.
On Nigeria’s energy transition, Aliyu stressed that decarbonisation should be pursued alongside industrialisation, economic growth and expanded access to electricity.
“The challenge before us is not simply to reduce emissions. The real challenge is to expand energy access, grow the economy, industrialise, and reduce emissions at the same time,” he said.
He added that key REA initiatives, including the Nigeria Electrification Project, the Renewable Energy Scale-Up Programme, the Energising Education Programme, and the National Public Sector Solarisation Initiative, are helping to develop a more structured renewable energy market through private sector-led implementation.
