By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, Northern Nigeria
The Executive Vice Chairman of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Khalil Suleiman Halilu, has called for a fundamental shift in Nigeria’s clean energy strategy, urging the country to move beyond deploying renewable energy technologies to manufacturing them locally.
Speaking at the Mustapha Abdullahi Energy Leadership Fellowship in Abuja, north central, Nigeria, on the theme “Energy Infrastructure, Systems & Integration,” Halilu said Nigeria’s energy future depended on building an integrated ecosystem that combined innovation, manufacturing, research, policy, financing and human capital.
Commending the organisers, the Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi and the APC National Youth Leader, Hon. Dayo Israel, for investing in the next generation of energy leaders, the NASENI boss described visionary leadership as the foundation for building lasting national infrastructure.
Highlighting the scale of Africa’s energy challenge, Halilu noted that more than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa still lacked access to clean energy, while the continent required an estimated US$15 billion annually to close the energy access gap by 2035. He added that although Africa now haD over 20 gigawatts of installed solar capacity, with solar photovoltaic projects accounting for 62 per cent of renewable energy investments in 2024, the pace of implementation must accelerate.
Turning to Nigeria, Halilu expressed concern over the country’s growing dependence on imported renewable energy technologies. “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,” he said.
He stressed that energy infrastructure alone could not industrialise a nation, explaining that sustainable development required an integrated system where technology creation, manufacturing, innovation, policy, financing and skilled manpower worked together. Halilu said this philosophy underpinned NASENI’s transformation agenda, anchored on the Agency’s 3Cs Strategy—Creation, Collaboration and Commercialisation.
According to him, NASENI was creating technologies that solved local problems, collaborating with both local and international partners to accelerate technology transfer and capacity building, and commercialising innovation to ensure research translated into products that improved lives.
He highlighted several flagship initiatives driving Nigeria’s clean energy ecosystem, including the 40-hectare Solar Industrial Park in Gora, Nasarawa State, which was positioning Nigeria to localise the production of solar panels, batteries and other renewable energy components.
He also cited NASENI’s partnership with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) under the Nigeria First Policy, which promoted the deployment of locally manufactured renewable energy technologies in electrification projects nationwide.
Other initiatives, he said, included solar-powered irrigation systems that boosted agricultural productivity, clean cookstoves that reduced dependence on firewood, and decentralised renewable energy solutions for communities, schools and healthcare facilities. Describing these interventions as interconnected rather than isolated projects, Halilu said they were designed to strengthen local manufacturing, create jobs, develop technical capacity and expand access to clean energy across Nigeria.
Addressing participants at the fellowship, he challenged young Nigerians to become systems thinkers capable of connecting technology with policy, innovation with investment and ideas with execution. “Nigeria has the resources, the talent and the market to become Africa’s clean energy manufacturing hub. What we need are leaders who are prepared to build institutions, strengthen value chains and embrace collaboration,” he said.
Reaffirming NASENI’s commitment to Nigeria’s industrial transformation, Halilu said the Agency’s objective extended beyond increasing energy access to ensuring that the technologies powering Africa’s future were increasingly designed, manufactured and commercialised from Nigeria.
He concluded by posing a challenge to the audience: “When Africa’s clean energy future is fully realised, will Nigeria simply be a consumer of those technologies, or will we be among those who build them?” According to him, NASENI has already chosen its path. “We are building the ecosystem that will make Nigeria a leader in clean energy manufacturing and innovation while unlocking Infinite Possibilities for generations to come.”
