Going solar in Nigeria has become an act of self-sufficiency in recent years. With the grid delivering unreliable power and rising costs resulting from the band reclassification, any business or household that could afford panels effectively unplugged, and the surplus those solar systems generated simply went to waste.
That has now changed, as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has commenced its Net Billing Regulations 2026, a framework that allows electricity consumers to generate their own renewable power and sell the surplus back to the national grid. For the first time, there is a structured legal pathway for what the regulation calls prosumers — customers who both produce and consume electricity.
Under the new rules, an eligible customer installs a solar system, uses what they need, and exports the excess to their distribution company. In return, exported electricity earns credits based on an export tariff approved by NERC, which are then set against future bills. If the value of what you export exceeds what you consume in a cycle, the remaining credit rolls forward. There’s a quieter sweetener too: prosumers keep any carbon credits their renewable projects generate.
It is not open to everyone. Systems must fall between 50 kilowatt-peak and 1.5 megawatt-peak, a benchmark high enough that this is, for now, a commercial-and-industrial story, not a rooftop-residential one. The process is deliberate: you apply to your DisCo for a technical feasibility assessment; it confirms that your installation meets standards and that the local network can absorb your exports; then you sign a Net Billing Agreement, register with NERC, and get fitted with a bidirectional meter that measures power flowing both ways.
That feasibility step matters more than it sounds. Uncontrolled injections into a low-voltage network already prone to voltage instability and asset faults are exactly the risk that has shadowed distributed generation in Nigeria for years.
Most coverage, including the framing you’ll see everywhere, calls this “net metering.” It isn’t. It’s net billing, and the difference is in how it works.
Under true net metering, your meter effectively runs backward, and every exported unit is credited at the full retail rate, a one-for-one swap where the grid acts as a free battery.
Net billing is different: you’re compensated for surplus energy at a set export rate, typically lower than the retail price you pay for grid power.
I know it sounds too technical, so let’s break it down. Think of the grid as a shop you both buy from and sell to. Under net metering, the shop swaps your unit for a unit. You hand over a kilowatt-hour at noon and take one back at night; no cash changes hands, and the price doesn’t matter. The grid is simply free storage that holds your power until you need it.
Net billing works like a real shop: you sell your surplus at the shop’s buying price and buy back at the selling price, and the buying price is always lower. A unit you export is worth less than a unit you pull back in. So you run on your own solar while the sun is up, and only sell what you genuinely can’t use.
This was a choice by NERC, not an oversight, because the 1.5 MW ceiling is modest by international standards, which observers read as NERC’s intent to stress-test the framework with a defined first cohort before widening it. Net billing is the conservative, grid-protective design suitable for a network that can’t yet afford to treat itself as infinite free storage. It nudges prosumers toward self-consumption, efficiency, and eventually storage, rather than dumping the load onto fragile infrastructure.
The scale of the shift becomes clear in one number: as recently as 2024, grid-connected solar contributed roughly 0.2% of Nigeria’s total electricity generation. The capacity exists — Nigeria posted 141% year-on-year growth in new solar installs in 2025, making it Africa’s second-largest installer after South Africa. Net billing is the policy attempt to connect that latent capacity to the wider system, turning solar owners from passive off-takers into active contributors and earners.
The economics already lean in. Commercial and industrial solar users in Nigeria are seeing 20–30% savings compared to diesel self-generation, and an export credit only improves the math. Set against power shortages that cost the economy an estimated $29 billion a year in lost output, the case for pulling private solar into the grid writes itself.
Here’s the catch: this regulation can’t solve it on its own: a prosumer model only works if both sides of the meter have total visibility.
On the utility side, a DisCo can’t credit exports it can’t measure, or absorb injections it can’t monitor in real time. On the consumer side, net billing quietly means that when export is credited below retail, the smart play is no longer “generate as much as possible” — it’s “understand your own consumption, maximize what you self-consume, and export the rest intelligently.” That requires visibility that most Nigerian energy users have never had.
This is the layer we’ve been building toward at Beacon Power Services. CAIMS maps the network into a digital twin, and ADORA runs real-time monitoring and billing on top of it, giving DisCos the operational picture that net billing depends on. And Xepp gives the consumer their half: a single app to track consumption patterns in real time, manage payments, and move on to solar with a system sized to their actual power use. Net billing makes that kind of consumption intelligence valuable in a way it simply wasn’t before.
Put plainly, the regulation creates the right to be a prosumer. The data and tools are what turn that right into a return.
The bottom line
NERC hasn’t flipped a switch that pays everyone for sunshine. It has done something more careful — built a controlled on-ramp that rewards efficiency, protects a stressed grid, and begins dismantling the one-way relationship in which power only ever flowed from the utility to you. Nigeria’s renewable market is projected to reach roughly 14 GW by 2031. Net billing is the signal that the country intends to capture that growth and share it with the people already paying to build it.
The prosumer era is here. The question now is who can actually see well enough to make it pay.
The lights in Lagos, Nigeria, go out between 30 and 60 times a month. When power does flow, it lasts perhaps six to eight hours a day—enough to charge a phone, but not nearly enough to run a factory. It is the same story in Nairobi, Lusaka, and Dakar— cities that are technically electrified.
At a moment when artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and the clean-energy transition are rewriting the global economic order, Africa’s commercial hubs risk getting left behind again—not because they lack wires, but because the electrons flowing through those networks are unreliable, untracked, and leaking.
That is the argument Bim Adisa has been making to utilities, investors, and anyone who will listen. Adisa is the founder and CEO of Beacon Power Services, a Nigerian-based firm that builds data and software solutions for African power grids. His pitch is equal parts engineering lecture and economic manifesto: the path to a more stable, prosperous world runs through the transformer stations of sub-Saharan Africa, and the technology to fix them already exists.
“No economy grows without electricity. It’s fundamental to industrialization, and in the 21st century, to digitization. Africa missed the last industrial revolution. Now we’re having another one, underpinned by electricity. It’s really critical that we fix the electricity problem now,” Adisa told me in a virtual interview.
The common narrative around African electrification fixates on the roughly 600 million people who have no access to electricity at all. That number is real—and damning. But just as important is that somewhere between 500 and 600 million Africans do have grid connections, yet those networks fail them daily.
On Monday, April 13, we attended the unveiling of the MTN CHAMPS Season 4 Grand Final in Ibadan, marking the final stop of a season that began in Calabar and continued through Jos. Our Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications, Oluchi Ubazue, represented us at the press conference with government officials, sports administrators, MTN executives, and the Making of Champions team.
Our sponsorship goes beyond brand visibility. It is about creating opportunities and supporting the future of Nigerian sports. MTN CHAMPS has revealed the depth of talent across Calabar, Jos, and now Ibadan. By participating, we help build a system that enables this talent to grow and succeed.
We use the word ‘system’ intentionally. We aim to support structures that help young athletes persevere. This partnership aligns perfectly with our commitment to building effective solutions.
Our support is tangible. We have sponsored two athletes, Destiny and Rebecca, who delivered strong, consistent performances throughout the season. Their dedication shows the importance of platforms like this and the need for organizations to support emerging talent.
We appreciate Making of Champions, MTN, and the other sponsors for their ongoing commitment to youth development. We are genuinely excited about the future for these athletes.
The Grand Final will be the largest in the competition’s history, with over 3,200 athletes from 375 schools and teams competing in Ibadan at the Lekan Salami Stadium and the University of Ibadan Sports Complex. This is Ibadan’s third time hosting MTN CHAMPS and its first time hosting the Grand Final. MoC Founder and CEO Bambo Akani noted that this milestone places the city among the top three for registration numbers across all four seasons.
Akani thanked us for our role in providing athlete scholarships and acknowledged MTN’s efforts in expanding the event nationally. MTN’s Idowu Adesokan highlighted the identification of 30 athletes as early evidence that this platform could produce future Olympic champions.
Enoch Adegoke, MTN CHAMPS Ibadan Ambassador and Olympic finalist, stated that Ibadan would exceed the achievements seen in Calabar and Jos. Five-time Olympian Mary Onyali emphasized that talent alone is not sufficient; athletes also require funding, media exposure, and robust support systems to succeed.
Our journey from Calabar to Jos to Ibadan represents more than sponsorship. It shows the impact of committed partnerships in building infrastructure, whether for power or supporting young athletes as they pursue their futures.
The 20 Most Valuable Performers from the Calabar and Jos stages will now compete against the best in Ibadan. The Grand Final offers the highest stakes in the competition’s four-year history, and we will continue to support every step of the way.
We’re pleased to announce the appointment of Ije Ikoku Okeke to the Board of Directors.
Ije brings over twenty years of experience in infrastructure investing, renewable energy, and development finance. She has led investments totaling more than $3 billion in energy and infrastructure projects across the United States, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and other emerging markets.
Currently, Ije serves as Managing Director at RMI, where she leads initiatives to expand climate and renewable energy finance in emerging markets. Her work focuses on unlocking capital and establishing partnerships to support sustainable infrastructure growth.
Earlier in her career, Ije helped start CEC Africa, an energy investment platform backed by private equity with about $1 billion in assets focused on power projects. She also held leadership roles at the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, where she managed investments in telecom, transport, and energy in Latin America and Africa.
In addition to her executive roles, Ije has served on the boards of several infrastructure companies and on advisory boards and investment committees for private equity and venture funds. She has also advised global initiatives, including the Rockefeller Foundation and the MIT Energy Initiative, through the Global Commission to End Energy Poverty.
“We are delighted to welcome Ije to the Beacon Power Services Board,” said Bim Adisa, CEO and Founder of Beacon Power Services. “Her deep experience in energy infrastructure and sustainable investment in Africa and other emerging markets brings a valuable perspective to our Board. Ije’s history of mobilizing capital for infrastructure and energy projects worldwide will be a great asset as we continue to grow and increase our impact.”
Ije earned her MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
We look forward to the expertise and perspective Ije will contribute to Beacon Power Services.
