Engr. Kachisicho Abel Okenwa is one of the founders of Orabel Electrix, Nigeria’s premier indigenous power systems company. He has championed innovation and excellence in power distribution and management in Nigeria, and under his stewardship, Orabel Electrix has become synonymous with reliability, cutting-edge solutions, and national pride. In this interview with IKECHI NZEAKO, he assesses the impact of the proposed plan by the Federal Government to ban the import of solar panels on entrepreneurs, the oil industry and other sectors of the Nigerian economy. Excerpts:
 What is your response to the plan by the Federal Government’s plan to ban the importation of solar panels into Nigeria? 
As an engineer running an indigenous power systems company here in Nigeria, I look at the government’s plan to ban solar panel imports with a mix of deep professional anxiety and a bit of long-term hope for our local industry. 
While the policy aims to drive local manufacturing and protect domestic investments, enforcing an outright ban right now is a double-edged sword. It could severely disrupt Nigeria’s momentum in bridging our massive energy deficit through renewable energy. 
What will be the impact of the ban on the local economy? 
The immediate to short-term impact of a total import ban on the local economy will likely slow down growth rather than stimulate it, mostly because of a few reality checks. 
It will lead to an escalation of project costs because mass solar PV production remains heavily concentrated in China, where fierce competition and state support have slashed global panel costs by 90 per cent over the last two decades. 
Forcing local installers to buy from limited, higher-cost domestic suppliers will drive up the capital expenditure for solar installations. 
This threatens the economic viability of commercial and industrial projects, mini-grids, and smallholder agricultural interventions, like solar-powered irrigation pumps that have otherwise cut operational fuel expenses by over 60 per cent. 
Another impact is that it will lead to deceleration of the energy transition because Nigeria currently faces massive electricity grid instability and an immense energy access gap. Moreover, our renewable capacity, though growing through decentralised projects, is still small relative to national demand, hovering around 3 GW. 
An import ban would choke the supply chain of critical components, stalling rural electrification programs like the Nigeria Electrification Project and private sector-led solar home system rollouts. 
How will it affect the job situation in the country?
It will lead to job losses in the downstream sector; while a ban seeks to create manufacturing jobs upstream, it threatens a much larger downstream ecosystem, and thousands of indigenous solar companies employ vast numbers of youth in design, engineering, procurement, installation, and maintenance. If the price of panels spikes or supply dries up, many of these installers will face operational collapse. 
Does local industry have the capacity to fill the gap? 
To be blunt, no, we just aren’t there yet. The local industry does not currently have the capacity to fill the massive supply gap that an outright import ban would create. 
What will be your assessment of assembly versus full-scale manufacturing: Nigeria has a few notable domestic assembly plants, such as NASENI’s solar plant in Karshi, Auxano Solar, and Blue Camel. But these facilities are primarily assembly plants, not full-scale chip or ingot manufacturers. 
They import photovoltaic cells, tempered glass, EVA sheets, and backsheets, and then assemble them locally. If the ban covers all solar components, these factories will shut down. Even if the ban only covers completed panels, they still lack the automated output to match national demand. 
The Scale Deficit: The aggregate annual production capacity of all local solar assemblers combined is estimated to be well under 100 MW. 
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s actual and suppressed demand for solar panels across residential, agricultural, and industrial markets runs into several gigawatts. 
What is your assessment of the infrastructure and supply chain bottlenecks? 
Manufacturing panels competitively requires stable electricity, low-cost logistics, and easy access to raw materials. 
In Nigeria, local assemblers battle the high cost of running factories on diesel or gas backup, high port clearing costs, and expensive local haulage. 
Forcing a local supply mandate without fixing these foundational issues means local panels will be significantly more expensive and less technologically advanced than foreign alternatives. 
What is the strategic way forward? 
Instead of an outright ban, the government should deploy a phased fiscal policy rather than a blunt regulatory hammer. 
The government can impose smart tariffs, not bans: maintain zero or minimal duties on specialised manufacturing raw materials like solar cells and solar ribbon while gradually introducing a modest tariff on fully assembled imported modules to give local assemblers a price advantage. 
The government can enforce mandatory local content in public procurement; government-funded projects, such as the National Public Sector Solarisation Initiative, should be legally mandated to buy a percentage of their panels from verified local assemblers. 
This guarantees local plants a steady off-take market to scale up operations without starving the private sector. 
The government should also provide targeted subsidies and de-risk the local manufacturing sector by granting tax holidays, subsidised land in Free Trade Zones, and single-digit interest rate credit lines specifically for factory expansion and automated assembly lines. 
Ikechi Nzeako is a journalist with Independent Newspapers Limited. He is a graduate of the University of Ibadan and he is interested in politics, history, economy and sports. He writes on small business, entrepreneurship, training, employment, start-ups, and general business.




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