Nigeria, April 30 -- In a country where access to electricity is more a privilege than a right, solar energy has become the last hope of the common man. From small barbershops and tailoring sheds to community health centers and low-income homes, solar panels now dot the rooftops of the forgotten corners of Nigeria, silently powering lives the national grid has long abandoned.

So, when the federal government, through the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, recently announced plans to ban the importation of solar panels, citing the need to promote local production, it sent shockwaves through the renewable energy sector. And rightly so.

The Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN) has since rejected the ...