The Rural Electrification Agency has formalized a five-year strategic partnership with Mente Energy Limited through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, marking the official commencement of the Renewable Energy Localization and Industrialization Programme, a national initiative designed to restructure Nigeria’s growing renewable energy market and anchor its economic benefits firmly within the country.
The programme, known as RELIP, is built around a Nigeria-first philosophy and seeks to establish the data systems, institutional architecture, and demand signals needed to attract investment from domestic sources, international markets, development finance institutions, and private capital into Nigeria’s clean energy value chain.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Abuja, REA Managing Director Abba Aliyu described the initiative as a structural turning point for an energy sector that had, until now, seen much of its economic value flow offshore despite significant local deployment of renewable systems.
“Nigeria has built significant momentum in decentralized renewable energy but until now, the economic value of that deployment has largely flowed offshore. RELIP changes that. By organizing our national demand and building the institutional architecture to support domestic manufacturing, we are creating the conditions for investment, jobs and industrial growth to take root on Nigerian soil,” he said.
Mente Energy founder and Managing Partner Tolu Osekita described Nigeria’s renewable energy market as one of the most significant industrial opportunities of the decade, arguing that what RELIP did was provide the structural framework necessary for capital of every origin to invest with greater confidence and at greater scale.
“Grounded in Nigeria-first principles, this is about catalyzing the maximum economic opportunity for our country, factories, jobs, investment and industrial growth built on Nigerian soil, in partnership with the world,” Osekita said.
Aliyu noted that adoption of renewable energy solutions was accelerating across both the public and private sectors, with millions of solar home systems installed, hundreds of mini-grids operational, and growing uptake among commercial and industrial users. Against this backdrop, the RELIP framework aims to attract long-term domestic and international investment, generate skilled employment across Nigerian manufacturing corridors, grow a domestic supply chain of component suppliers and service businesses, and position Nigeria to serve broader regional clean energy demand across West Africa over time.
