
Policy brief
From Price-Taker to Producer: A regional strategy for Africa in the solar value chain
Vinayak Bhardwaj, DrPH and Grieve Chelwa, PhD
October 2026
Africa is the fastest-growing solar market in the world and makes almost none of what it installs. This brief asks whether the continent can move from being a price-taker in that market to a producer within it, and sets out the regional strategy, financing and conditional industrial policy that would require.



