Name: Solar panel imports spike across Africa | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-08-27T12:50:27.000Z
Duration: 4 min 23 s
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There's evidence a renewables revolution could be beginning to take hold in Africa.

The global energy think tank EMBA suggests that imports of solar panels are up by 60% over the 12 months to June compared with the previous year.

The data shows 20 African nations set new records for solar panel imports over the period, including Algeria, Zambia, Botswana and Sudan.

Ogutu Okudo is founder and CEO of Guru Energy, a multi-energy company focusing on the deployment of energy resources.

She says solar power increases could be transformative for millions of people.

What does it actually mean for the costs of countries which are buying more solar and from what it then unlocks?

Access to energy unlocks and unlocks potential and transforms lives.

And when you have this access to the solar, what we're talking about is, first of all, you look at some of these different countries like Nigeria, you've mentioned also Algeria, you're going to be affecting the factors and the costs of production.

Energy is by far the biggest cost when it comes to factors of production.

So the minute you have incentivized policy where you're saying let's remove the value-added tax and fees and a lot of the red tape that exists in importation and use of solar home systems and solar PVs, then you're saying that we as governments are prioritizing electrification and energy across countries.

And this is going to see costs drop drastically.

When we compare different costs of manufacturing in different countries across the continent, we look and see that the countries that have had lower costs of manufacturing and costs of power and energy have been getting much more investment.

Put into case an example, Ethiopia, it's approximately US dollar 18 cents, 12 cents for a kilowatt hour.

So if we're able to change this and introduce solar energy to be able to bridge this gap, then we're going to see a huge change in the factors of production, which is going to make energy access be more accessible, more affordable, more reliable, and definitely more deployable.

And most of the solar system is coming from China.

So that is the quagmire that we do exist in and not only on the African continent today, but globally around the world.

China is contributing approximately and are dominating 80% of the solar markets globally.

So this means that most countries have to get most of their parts from China.

Right now we're seeing in Africa, Nigeria have just announced they want to build a solar, they want to build a solar hub that's going to generate one gigawatt.

You are able to step up with innovation through research and development in your own countries and on the continent to be part of that manufacturing line.

But it's very important to ensure that before we put legislation for protectionism, we have to ensure that, again, this solar is affordable and deployable.

And this is only going to be done through government as a facilitator and an organiser for private sector to thrive.

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Solar panel imports spike across Africa | BBC News

potential

access

prioritize

evidence