LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA: A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING COMMUNITY-OWNED RENEWABLE ENERGY (CORE) PROJECTS IN NIGERIA

Given the escalating global energy shortage, increasing cost of production of traditional energy sources, the need to reduce environmental missions, and need for sustainable industrial development for economic growth, the international demand for renewable energy sources has increased significantly in recent years. in Nigeria, majority of the renewable energy projects are concentrated in the cities. This escalates the growing rural energy poverty in the country. This study thus employed the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method to examined evidence on the development, challenges, and prospects of Community Owned Renewable Energy (CORE) in Nigeria, with comparative insights from South Africa. The research followed the Preferred Reporting Items (PRISMA) framework in screening existing studies published in various databases. Ten peer-reviewed publications published between 2015 and 2025 were examined to ensure quality and relevance. The extracted data were analysed using the thematic content analysis. The results indicate that CORE offers a viable future of attaining inclusive and sustainable access to energy, particularly within the rural and underserved Nigerian populations where centralized grid expansion is a very slow and uneconomical option. The study highlights that renewable energy systems, especially hybrid solar, wind, and mini-grid systems, have the potential of contributing to making local energy security much more prolific, promoting business in the rural areas, and enhancing social wellbeing. Nevertheless, implementing these benefits in Nigeria is limited by the inconsistency of policies, ineffective institutional coordination, ineffective financing mechanisms, and low technical capacities at community scales.