NASENI Solar Energy Limited (NSEL)

NASENI Solar Energy Limited (NSEL) is the first solar photovoltaic module manufacturing operation in Nigeria. Nigeria had hosted off-grid solar deployments since the 1970s — NNPC's pilot solar-powered borehole pumps in the early 1980s, the Sokoto Energy Research Centre installations of the Shagari and Buhari eras, the World Bank Rural Electrification pilots of the 1990s — but every panel installed for forty years was imported from German, American, Indian or (after 2005) Chinese factories.

The NASENI plant at Karshi, FCT, announced in November 2011 with a 7.5 MW/year nameplate capacity, brought first modules off the line in 2012 and was the first time a solar panel was assembled on Nigerian soil. The facility is the flagship commercial subsidiary of NASENI, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure established by Decree 33 of 1992 (Babangida) to anchor domestic capability in machine tools, electronics, scientific equipment and renewable-energy hardware. NSEL supplies into Federal Government off-grid programmes, Rural Electrification Agency mini-grid deployments, and state-government school and clinic electrification schemes. Private indigenous competitors — Auxano Solar (founded 2014 by Onyeka Akumah and Patrick Aghedo, first private Nigerian module plant at Navy Town, Lagos, 2016; expanded to a 100 MW automated line at Ibeju-Lekki in September 2023 with All On / Shell impact backing) and a number of post-2022 PAGMI-era entrants — followed NASENI into the market. The Tinubu administration's 2023 appointment of Khalil Suleiman Halilu as NASENI EVC has driven a publicly announced scale-up of the Karshi line and a parallel solar-pump and solar-streetlight assembly programme.