Stalled wind farm project in Katsina typifies Nigeria’s struggle to build renewable-energy industry

For more than two decades, Nigeria has pursued renewable energy as part of the solution to its electricity crisis.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) reported that the average supply from grid-connected power plants was about 5,400MW in the fourth quarter of 2025, while World Bank data put the access rate at 62.5 per cent in 2024.

Authorities have tried to expand power generation through solar and wind projects. However, the 10MW Lambar-Rimi wind farm project in Katsina State shows how difficult it has been for the country to turn plans into functioning power assets.

Lambar-Rimi wind farm

The Katsina State Government began the project in 2005. Since then, the facility has changed ownership twice, the first time in 2007 when it was taken over by the federal government.

After the takeover, the federal government awarded a contract in 2010 to a French company, Vergnet S.A., to build the wind farm within 24 months. The farm would have 37 turbines, each to deliver about 275 kilowatts of electricity. The contract included offshore components valued at €18.5 million and onshore components valued at N494 million.

Safe to say the project did not go according to plan.

The project encountered several setbacks in a state facing severe security challenges. Following the abduction of a French commissioning engineer, the company obtained approval to transfer components of the work to a local contractor, Credco Nigeria Limited.

The revised arrangement increased the contract to €20.85 million offshore and N573.90 million onshore.

By 2016, a government budget implementation report stated the progress made in the project to include the delivery of two 7.5MVA transformers, restoration of a vandalised 33kV line, completion of foundation work, installation of towers and turbines, and construction of medium-voltage rooms.

It said outstanding works included the overhead line linking the wind farm to the 33kV network and an injection substation at Liyafa.

The 2017 government budget implementation report later described the project as about 95 per cent complete.

However, six years later, in 2023, Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), the designated off-taker of power from the wind farm, described the wind farm as only 80 per cent complete.

In an article published on 31 August 2026, the Nigerian Wind Energy Council (NWEC) said years of inactivity had left the Lambar-Rimi wind farm’s turbines degraded and in need of extensive rehabilitation.

New Twist

In April 2025, the Katsina State Government requested to reacquire the facility. The federal government approved the transfer, with the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, explaining that it was in line with the Electricity Act 2023 and the emerging role of states in the electricity markets.

In September 2025, Katsina announced the reacquisition of the wind farm and its plans to hybridise it with a 10MW solar plant.

The state has since said it was working with Vergnet to assess the turbines, electrical systems, and grid infrastructure. The state government expects the hybrid facility to come on stream in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The twists and turns in the Lambar-Rimi wind farm story demonstrate how Nigeria has struggled to produce and distribute enough electricity for its 240 million people.

PREMIUM TIMES sent several calls and messages to the Special Adviser on Power and Energy to the Katsina State Governor, Abubakar Ibrahim, seeking details of the current status of the facility, the funds committed and whether progress had been made towards the planned commissioning. The officials did not respond to the inquiry.

PREMIUM TIMES also made several attempts to reach officials at the Federal Ministry of Power for clarification on why the project has not been completed in over 15 years.

The calls were not answered, and the ministry did not respond to the text messages either.

Lambar-Rimi not alone

Many other large renewable-energy projects in Nigeria have remained at different stages of development for years.

They include the 100MW Maraban Pushit wind farm in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, promoted by JBS Wind Power Limited.

A World Bank project document records that the company had secured a 45-year land lease, conducted environmental impact assessment studies and obtained provisional approval to evacuate electricity through a 132kV substation at Makeri in Plateau State.

The project appeared in regulatory records in October 2012, 14 years ago, but has not developed into an operating utility-scale wind farm. Publicly available records reviewed for this report did not establish how much has been spent on the project or whether public funds were committed.

Solar projects in Nigeria have a similarly mixed track record.

The 50MW Onyi project in Kokona, Nasarawa State, associated with Afrinergia Power Limited, received a generation licence in April 2016. Global Energy Monitor lists the project as cancelled, inferring cancellation occurred in June 2024.

A 75 MW Kankia solar project in Katsina State was promoted by Pan Africa Solar Limited, with JCM Capital listed as the project owner. The Nation newspaper reported in July 2016 that the company and the federal government had signed a power purchase agreement for the project, with a proposed investment of $146 million.

NERC records show that Pan Africa Solar received a generation licence in December 2014, which expired in December 2024. The regulator lists the project as non-operational, while Global Energy Monitor classifies it as cancelled, with cancellation inferred to have occurred in February 2025.

However, despite the lack of success in some renewable energy projects, others have been successfully completed. A 10MW solar project in Kumbotso, Kano State, developed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), was commissioned in 2023. This project shows that utility-scale renewable projects can be delivered when financing, project management, evacuation infrastructure, and an identifiable market align.

A project is not an ecosystem

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, NWEC’s Research and Operations Consultant, Ojodomo Odiniya, noted that Nigeria lacks an ecosystem capable of turning power resources into bankable projects.

He identified policy and regulatory uncertainty, grid constraints, financing, inadequate wind-resource data, weak institutional coordination, and land and community issues as major barriers.

Investors, he said, need a predictable pathway from resource assessment and land acquisition through permitting, procurement, financing, power purchase agreements, grid connection and long-term operation.

Mr Odiniya prescribed a systematic development of the sector. He said this could also begin with localising parts of the renewable-energy value chain instead of trying to manufacture an entire wind turbine immediately.

He said foundations, civil works, tower fabrication, electrical installation, transportation, engineering, operations, and maintenance could provide entry points for Nigerian companies.

“The point is not to begin with a fully Nigerian-made turbine. It is to ensure that each project creates capabilities that can be used by the next project,” he said.

The consultant also warned against developing generation without the transmission infrastructure required to evacuate it.

For future wind projects, Mr Odiniya said site selection should consider not only wind strength but also grid access, logistics, security, land and lifetime operating costs.

Egypt built system around projects

North African economic powerhouse, Egypt, shows what happens when projects are developed alongside the institutions and infrastructure required to support them.

In written responses to questions from PREMIUM TIMES in September, Jauad El Kharraz, senior advisor to the TERAMED Initiative and former executive director of the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, said Egypt’s expansion followed a sequence of institutional decisions that reduced uncertainty for investors.

Egypt’s Electricity Law, Law No. 87 of 2015, provided a framework for the country’s electricity market and allowed greater participation by private generators.

Egypt had also introduced a separate Renewable Energy Law, Law No. 203 of 2014, which established mechanisms for developing renewable-energy projects.

The country first used feed-in tariffs to encourage private investment in renewable energy and develop projects such as the Benban solar park.

It subsequently moved towards competitive auctions and build-own-operate arrangements as the market matured. Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) lists feed-in tariffs, competitive auctions, build-own-operate projects, and independent power producer arrangements among the mechanisms used to develop renewable-energy projects.

That progression mattered because developers were not simply being asked to build renewable plants. They were being given a clearer framework for how electricity would be purchased and how investment could be recovered.

The Benban experience illustrates the effect.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says it invested more than $1.1 billion in 16 photovoltaic plants at Benban, with a combined capacity of 750MW.

The plants were connected to Egypt’s national electricity grid in 2019. The bank also supported Egypt’s move from feed-in tariffs towards competitive renewable-energy auctions.

Mr El Kharraz said Egypt also addressed some of the infrastructure problems before they could become bottlenecks.

The New and Renewable Energy Authority, he said, helped make land available in resource-rich areas, while the government invested heavily in transmission.

According to figures he provided, Egypt’s 500-kilovolt transmission lines increased from 2,364 kilometres in 2014 to 8,250 kilometres by late 2024, while substation capacity increased to about 48,000 megavolt-amperes (MVA).

The lesson for Nigeria is that a renewable-energy project cannot be treated as an isolated generating asset. The land, transmission system, power purchaser, financing structure, approvals and maintenance arrangements must develop around it.

Egypt’s model also relied heavily on development finance.

EBRD financing helped establish the Benban pipeline, while the bank worked with Egyptian authorities on the design and implementation of competitive renewable-energy tenders.

Mr El Kharraz said Egypt used sovereign-backed arrangements, standardised contracts, risk-sharing mechanisms and development-finance institutions to reduce the risks private investors faced.

He said some of these institutional principles could be adapted to Nigeria, including standardised bankable power purchase agreements (PPAs), clean-energy corridors with prepared land and grid connections, and more coordinated permitting.

A Nigerian model

For Nigeria, the answer is not to copy Egypt’s model wholesale.

Tobi Oluwatola, associate partner at AP3 Advisory, noted that Egypt’s large, centralised renewable-energy parks developed within a different electricity-market structure. Nigeria, by contrast, has increasingly relied on commercial and industrial projects, mini-grids, and other decentralised systems.

He said Nigeria needs contracts that give investors the confidence that electricity will be purchased, that there are credible buyers capable of paying for the power, and transmission infrastructure and mechanisms for managing foreign-exchange and other risks.

Mr Oluwatola said Nigeria could adapt elements of the Egyptian experience, including pre-permitted renewable-energy zones, standardised power-purchase arrangements and local-content requirements tied to public procurement.

The common lesson from both experts is that a renewable-energy project cannot be treated as an isolated generating plant.

Land, financing, contracts, transmission, regulation, and the electricity market have to develop around it.

The equipment problem

Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director-general of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), told PREMIUM TIMES that Nigerian companies can produce or assemble some renewable-energy equipment, including solar panels, mounting structures, cables and battery packs.

However, specialised technologies and several critical inputs remain heavily dependent on imports.

Government figures cited by officials put Nigeria’s solar technology import bill at more than N400 billion in 2025 and more than N200 billion in the first half of 2026.

Mr Ajayi-Kadir said manufacturers face high financing costs, foreign-exchange instability, expensive and unreliable electricity, infrastructure gaps, skills shortages, and uncertainty over demand.

This creates a circular problem.

Manufacturers are reluctant to invest heavily without predictable demand, while renewable-energy developers often turn to imported equipment because local suppliers cannot yet provide sufficient scale, technology, or competitive pricing.

The government’s Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme could help break that cycle by creating predictable demand.

The programme targets electricity access for more than 17.5 million Nigerians through thousands of connections and mini-grids.

Another example is the proposed Solarge Nigeria Limited solar manufacturing facility, established by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp) and Dutch company Solarge BV.

The proposed facility is designed to link manufacturing to a guaranteed market, with plans for local-content growth and procurement commitments.

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Mr Ajayi-Kadir said localisation should nevertheless be gradual.

Nigeria, he said, can begin with solar-module assembly, mounting structures, cables, battery packs and other balance-of-system components before moving into more sophisticated technologies.

For wind, immediate opportunities are more likely to lie in steel towers, foundations, electrical installation, engineering and maintenance than in manufacturing complete turbines.

DARES programme potential

The government’s Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme could help break that cycle by creating predictable demand.

The programme targets electricity access for more than 17.5 million Nigerians through thousands of connections and mini-grids.

Another example is the proposed Solarge Nigeria Limited solar manufacturing facility, established by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp) and Dutch company Solarge BV.

The proposed facility is designed to link manufacturing to a guaranteed market, with plans for local-content growth and procurement commitments.