A 450 W panel at N85,000 sounds cheap, until the quote for the whole system comes back at N3.1 million and nobody can say where the rest went. That gap is what most people miss about the solar panel price in Nigeria, and it is why two quotes for the “same” 3.5 kVA system can sit hundreds of thousands of naira apart.
This guide gives you dated shop prices for panels, batteries, inverters and complete packages, then shows what changes the number on your own quote. Every naira figure is attributed to the seller or publication that listed it, because a price is never “the price in Nigeria”.
If you would rather skip the reading, use the form to ask for written quotes or call +234 809 000 0000. This site is advertising for independent Nigerian solar installers. It does not install or sell anything. The installer who quotes your job surveys your property and contracts with you directly.
What one panel costs: solar panel prices in Nigeria, October 2026
Shop prices checked on 14 October 2026, per panel:
- SMK Solar (Lagos): 190 W at N55,000; 450 W full-cell at N85,000; 450 W half-cut at N98,000; 600 W half-cut at N145,000; 620 W mono at N155,000.
- itel Solar: 410 W at N130,000; 550 W N-type at N145,000; 620 W N-type bifacial at N165,000.
- Nature Solar (Alaba International Market, Lagos): Longi 450 W at N95,000; 470 W all-black at N100,000.
- Mercury Direct (Lagos): 325 W poly at N65,270; 420 W mono at N140,000.
Price per panel hides price per watt. SMK’s 190 W panel works out at about N289 per watt (55,000 divided by 190). Its 450 W full-cell panel is about N189 per watt, and its 620 W panel about N250 per watt. Compare watts, not panel counts.
BusinessDay reported in February 2026 that N-type TOPCon panels cost about 20 percent more than older mono panels.
Exchange rates move these numbers fast. Mobility.com.ng noted in June 2026 that a panel at N120,000 can become N140,000 a month later purely because of the naira. Treat every figure here as a guide and ask for a current written quote.
Why the panels are only part of the bill
BusinessDay (17 February 2026) put the typical split of a system’s cost at roughly 35 to 45 percent for the battery, 25 to 30 percent for the panels and 20 to 25 percent for the inverter. It also said professional installation alone runs N150,000 to N800,000.
You can see this in a real listing. SMK listed a 3.5 kVA inverter with a 5 kWh lithium battery at N1,947,000 in October 2026. Add six 450 W panels at SMK’s N85,000 to N98,000 each (N510,000 to N588,000) and you reach about N2.46 million to N2.54 million. SMK’s 3.5 kVA package with 5 kWh of lithium and six 450 W panels was listed at N3,121,000.
That leaves N586,000 to N664,000 that the parts do not explain. The page mentions installation accessories but does not itemise them. This is arithmetic on listed prices, not a verdict on SMK. The lesson is to ask any installer for an itemised quote.
Individual parts, as listed in October 2026: a 5 kWh lithium battery at N1,150,000 (Mercury Direct) or N1,200,000 (SMK Solar); a 10 kWh one at N1,950,000 (SMK) or N2,350,000 (Mercury); a 220Ah tall tubular at N260,000 (Mercury Direct and SMK Solar); and a Mercury 3.5 kVA hybrid inverter at N380,000.
What each solar system size costs in Nigeria
Published October 2026 package prices from Lagos sellers put a 3.5 kVA lithium system with panels at roughly N3.1 to N3.4 million, and a 5 kVA-class system with 10 kWh of lithium and panels at about N5 to N5.5 million. Here is what sits behind those numbers.
| Seller (October 2026) | Inverter | Battery | Panels | Installation | Listed price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMK Solar | 3.5 kVA | 5 kWh lithium | 6 x 450 W | ”accessories” listed, labour not stated | N3,121,000 |
| Sun King (PowerHub Plus) | 3.3 kW | 5 kWh lithium | 4 to 6 x 450 W | Included | N3,205,500 |
| Mercury Direct | 3.5 kVA | 5 kWh lithium | 8 x 450 W | Included | N3,400,000 |
| SMK Solar | 8.5 kVA | 10 kWh lithium | 10 x 590 W | Included, with Lagos delivery | N5,059,000 |
| itel Solar | 6 kW | 16 kWh lithium | 12 x 620 W | Not stated | N5,233,900 |
| Mercury Direct | 5.5 kVA (sold as “5kVA”) | 10 kWh lithium | 16 x 450 W | Included | N5,538,000 |
| Mercury Direct | 11 kVA | 15 kWh lithium | 20 x 450 W | Not stated | N9,538,000 |
Package contents differ, so the cheapest line is not automatically the best buy. The Mercury 3.5 kVA package has two more panels than the SMK one and states that installation is included, which accounts for part of the N279,000 gap. Check battery kWh, panel watts and what installation covers before you compare totals.
Press ranges tell a similar story. BusinessDay (February 2026) gave N2 million to N3 million for 3 to 4 kVA and N3.5 million to N5.5 million for 5 to 8 kVA. SustifyHomes, a quote marketplace, listed a 5 kVA hybrid with 10 kWh of lithium at N3.5 million to N6 million (prices updated August 2026). Use ranges like these for orientation only.
Inverters are rated in kVA, but your load is measured in kW. Real power equals apparent power times the power factor, so a 5 kVA inverter at 0.8 power factor carries 4 kW. Read the kW figure on the datasheet, and ask the installer which one they sized against.
Smaller options exist. The itel Power Tank 1000 (1,000 W, 2,000 Wh) was listed at N629,200. It runs phones, fans, a TV and lights for hours, but it does not replace a wired-in system for a fridge, a pumping machine or an AC. The full comparison is in solar generator vs inverter system, and sizing detail is in 5kVA inverter, panels and batteries.
What those panels will actually produce
Price is half the question. The other half is output. PVGIS modelling (1 kWp, 14 percent system losses, 10 degree tilt facing south) gives annual output per kWp of 1,534 kWh in Abuja, 1,447 in Enugu, 1,412 in Ibadan, 1,396 in Lagos, 1,380 in Benin City and 1,271 in Port Harcourt. Abuja yields about 21 percent more than Port Harcourt for the same panels. Check your own location in the PVGIS tool.
Seasons matter too. Output peaks in the dry months, December to February, and is lowest in the rainy months, June to August. In Lagos that is 4.56 kWh per kWp per day in February against 2.89 in July.
Here is the working for a 3.6 kW array in Lagos: 3.6 x 3.83 gives about 13.8 kWh on an average day, and 3.6 x 2.89 gives about 10.4 kWh on a July day. These are model figures before dust.
Dust is the awkward one. Harmattan carries dust from the Sahel and Sahara, and soiling studies show the worst cases. A Maiduguri field test (Abdulkarim and colleagues, 2022) found more than 50 percent loss in power output in under 14 days of continuous deposition. A Calabar dry-season test (Oyom and colleagues, 2023) found dust cut the sunlight reaching the panel by 21.1 percent. No measured soiling figure exists for Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Benin City or Enugu, so nobody can quote you a “typical” harmattan loss.
Three households, three different bills
These are anonymised illustrations, not customer stories.
A duplex in Lekki running a petrol gen every evening. Take a gen like the Sumec Firman ECO4990ES, which its Nigerian retailer says runs up to 12 hours at 50 percent load on a 15 litre tank. That is about 1.25 litres an hour. Five hours at N1,400 a litre (Lagos pump prices, 10 to 11 October 2026, per Vanguard) is 1.25 x 5 x 1,400 = N8,750 a day, or N262,500 over 30 days. That is an illustration, and a bigger gen burns more.
Mercury Direct listed a 5.5 kVA package with 10 kWh of lithium and 16 panels at N5,538,000. Do not divide one by the other and call it a payback date. Fuel prices move, the gen may still be needed in cloudy weeks, and the system needs maintenance of its own.
The bigger risk is oversized expectations. A 1 HP-class LG split AC (9,000 BTU inverter model) is rated at 1,000 W input. One running five hours uses about 5 kWh, a whole 5 kWh battery. The installer’s load audit decides what the system can run.
A Gwarinpa flat with a 2018 inverter and two tubular batteries that die by 2am. Lead-acid batteries last only three to five years, according to BusinessDay. Replacing two 220Ah tall tubulars at about N260,000 each is around N520,000. A 5 kWh lithium battery was listed at N1,150,000 to N1,200,000 in October 2026.
On manufacturer figures, the Felicity LPBF48100-A manual states 6,000 cycles at 80 percent depth of discharge, while a Luminous LPT 1240H tubular page says up to 1,500 cycles at 80 percent. That is four times the cycles, though each maker used its own test conditions. Whether lithium suits your old inverter is a survey question. The right answer may be new batteries and nothing else, which costs far less than a new system. See lithium vs tubular battery for the longer comparison.
A Bodija bungalow in Ibadan that wants the pumping machine on solar. Ibadan gets about 3.87 kWh per kWp per day in the PVGIS model, so a 3.6 kW array gives roughly 13.9 kWh on an average day (3.6 x 3.87) and about 10.4 kWh in August (3.6 x 2.89). SMK listed a 4.2 kVA hybrid with 5 kWh lithium and six 590 W panels at N3,141,000.
No wattage is published here for a pumping machine. Read the rating plate, because motors usually draw more at start-up than while running, and the inverter must handle that. An installer may suggest pumping in daytime while the panels are producing, once they have checked the motor on site.
If one of these looks like your situation, send your details through the form and ask for two or three comparable written quotes.
How to compare quotes without getting caught out
Three quotes are only comparable if they name the same things. Ask each installer to write down:
- The exact panel, inverter and battery models, with panel count and watts, and battery capacity in kWh.
- What installation covers, what it costs, and whether delivery is included.
- Warranty terms for each part, and who honours them. SMK, for example, states 18 months on its hybrid inverter, 5 years on lithium and 10 years on panels for its 3.5 kVA package.
- The VAT treatment. The Nigeria Tax Act 2025 took effect on 1 January 2026 with VAT at 7.5 percent, and solar equipment is reported to be exempt or zero-rated, though sources disagree on the label. Ask the installer to show it on the quote.
- How long the quote stays valid.
Then check the installer. NEMSA guidelines, as reported in April 2026, say rooftop solar must be installed only by electrical contractors with NEMSA certification. The same reporting lists a competency certificate on site, a load assessment first, surge protection, earthing and a battery management system on lithium. You can look an installer up in NEMSA’s directory of certified electrical contractors.
On fakes, industry experts quoted by NAN in July 2026 said batteries, inverters, panels, charge controllers, cables and connectors are the most counterfeited, and that fake batteries and inverters pose the biggest fire risk. Their advice was to check serial numbers, QR codes and warranty papers, and to buy from authorised dealers. That is an industry view, not a regulator warning.
Keep every receipt. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 gives a right to return goods that do not match the agreed specification (as quoted by Templars, June 2025), and that right is only as strong as the specification you wrote down.
Instalments change the total too. Sun King listed its PowerHub Core (2 kVA, 2.5 kWh) at N2,411,000 upfront, or N121,000 down plus N49,000 a week for 80 weeks. That adds up to 121,000 + (80 x 49,000) = N4,041,000, about 1.7 times the upfront price. Read the total before you sign.
Some jobs also need an outage window or a qualified engineer on site. Do not accept a quote that skips the survey.
Background reading: home solar installation and inverter and battery installation. When you are ready, request written quotes through the form and compare them line by line.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a 3.5 kVA solar system cost in Nigeria?
Published October 2026 package prices from Lagos sellers put a 3.5 kVA lithium system with panels at roughly N3.1 to N3.4 million. SMK Solar listed N3,121,000 and Mercury Direct listed N3,400,000, with different panel counts. Your quote depends on the exchange rate, the battery and the installation, so ask for a current written one.
Why do quotes for the same size of system differ so much?
Panel count, battery capacity, brand, installation scope and warranty terms all change the total. Two “3.5 kVA” systems can have different batteries or a different number of panels. Ask for the exact models and an itemised price so you can compare like with like.
How do I know the panels and batteries are genuine?
Industry experts quoted in July 2026 advise checking the manufacturer, serial numbers, QR codes and warranty papers, and buying from authorised dealers. Fake batteries and inverters are the biggest fire risk. Get the models written on the quote and keep your receipts.
Can I sell extra power from my panels to the grid?
Not at home scale. The NERC Net Billing Regulations 2026 start at a renewable system of 50 kWp, with DisCo approval and a bidirectional meter. A typical home system is far below that. Size your system for your own use.