A report by the Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA) has ranked Nigeria among the top African countries leveraging solar as an alternative source of energy with the country adding 63.5 Megawatt peak (MWp) capacity in 2024.
This brought the country’s total installed capacity to 385.7MWp at the end of the year according to the AFSIA Africa Solar Outlook 2025 report.
The report noted that the increasing interest in solar in Nigeria is driven by the removal of fuel subsidy, which forced many Nigerians to start looking for solar as an alternative.
“Nigeria has started feeling the positive impact of the fuel subsidy removal and an increased interest for solar+storage as a cheaper alternative to diesel,” AFSIA stated in the report.
Top performers in 2024
According to the report, South Africa maintains its leader’s position in African solar and remains the only African country that is part of the “Gigawatt Club”
- Egypt climbed to the second position thanks to the commissioning of 2 projects in Kom Ombo, while Zambia, which has faced severe load-shedding, ranked third as it has had to turn to solar in emergency mode.
- Nigeria ranked 4th in Africa as the high cost of power from the national grid and fuel subsidy removal pushed Nigerians to solar.
- Angola climbed back in the top 5 as it finished its utility-scale projects roll-out with MCA and Sun Africa started 2 years ago with 2 projects of 27 MWp each.
Solar installations across Africa
The report revealed that solar installations reached new heights across the globe in 2024 with a whopping 503 GWp of estimated capacity. This represents a 44% increase compared to 2023.
In Africa, the report shows that the growth was more modest but new installations maintain a solid level at 2.5 GWp after 2022 and 2023 being record years for solar in Africa.
“Thanks to new solar installations, Africa is now home to 19.2 GWp (excluding residential installations). This is the 3rd year in a row that more than 2 GWp are being installed, which is a testament to the good health of the industry.
“But solar in Africa did however not grow as much as the global solar market and still represents less than 1% of all solar currently installed across the globe,” the report stated.
More insights
Speaking on the report, which was unveiled during the Powerelec Nigeria conference and exhibition in Lagos, AFSIA CEO, Mr John van Zuylen, noted that while solar conquers more African countries, the business has remained highly concentrated.
“In 2024, South Africa and Egypt represented almost 80% of all the new solar installed, respectively representing 50% and 29%.
“But with multiple projects already announced and at various stages of development in several countries that are new to solar, we may witness a more distributed spread of solar in Africa in the years to come,” he said.
- He added that in terms of the prevalence of solar in the overall national power generation, the Central African Republic led the ranking of countries where solar contributes the most to the overall electricity mix, with more than 40% of all grid electricity consumed in the country originating from solar.
- According to him, other African countries that already have solar contribute more than 10% of their power consumption, including Mauritania (20.7%), Namibia (13.4%), Somalia (11.6%), Malawi (11.4%) The Gambia (10.6%), and Cape Verde (10.5%).
- Despite the increase in installed capacity last year, the contribution of solar energy in Nigeria’s energy mix stood at 1.6% in 2024.
