Solar installer and technician skills in Somalia

Where Xidig members may contribute

Skills, service and collaboration openings, not confirmed contracts or tenders:

• Teaching: short practical courses, instructor training and remote mentoring for TVET centres and universities.
• Quality checks: testing and inspecting systems against international (IEC) standards; checking products before purchase.
• Maintenance systems: preventive maintenance plans for health facilities, schools and mini-grids.
• Battery safety and recycling: safe handling, storage and collection of spent batteries.
• Standards work: helping draft a national occupational standard for solar technicians.

Possible services, research, supplier or collaboration roles

• A members' solar skills course, co-designed with a Somali TVET centre, taught partly online.
• A "solar check" service for families and small businesses buying systems.
• Research: a survey of how many trained technicians work in each region, and what they earn.

International certification, for reference.

• NABCEP (North America): certifies individuals, for example as PV Installation Professionals.
• MCS (United Kingdom): certifies installer businesses and products.

Members holding these can use them as benchmarks when designing local training.

Who may find this useful

• Electricians and electrical engineers.
• Solar installers with international certification.
• TVET instructors and curriculum designers.
• Health and school facility managers.
• Environmental and waste specialists.

The skills picture

Demand is growing.

• Who supplies power: the World Bank says private companies "supplied over 90 percent of power in urban and peri-urban areas of Somalia, via local private mini-grids" (2024 report, describing the market when its project began).
• Mini-grid contracts: under the World Bank's electricity project (SESRP), four contracts were awarded for 23.02 MWp of solar and 42.3 MWh of batteries in Baidoa, Galkayo and Garowe (November 2025). Solar work at 150 health facilities was complete.
• Health facilities and schools: in September 2026 the World Bank reported support for "energy services in 205 health facilities and 380 schools".
• Household products: the GOGLA industry association reports "over 500,000 units of off-grid solar products" sold since 2018.
• Stand-alone systems: an earlier World Bank project helped 33,661 households buy stand-alone solar systems, through 23 contracted solar service providers, with subsidised sales across its project areas, including Somaliland (2024).

Training exists, but it is scattered.

• Save the Children, Puntland (2023): trained 140 young people over a "6-month curriculum focused on hands-on practical learning of solar energy installation and maintenance skills", with the Puntland labour ministry and GIZ.
• World Bank solar project (2024): more than half of the young people trained in solar were women, and more than 100 young people were employed through the project.
• Instructor training: Strathmore University's Energy Research Centre in Kenya and Japan's JICA ran a solar PV training of trainers for 24 engineers, including TVET instructors and staff of Somali companies and government, with "post-training assessment and certification".
• Germany's GIZ: a TVET programme (2018–2024) included "integrating green skills" into training modules.
• Universities: a SIMAD-led university consortium (READ, funded by the EU's Erasmus+) has developed renewable-energy and energy-entrepreneurship courses, which six African universities plan to teach to at least 300 students (Dawan Africa, September 2026).
• National framework: a draft Somalia National Qualifications Framework with ten levels had been prepared by early 2025 (ACQF). Xidig found no national occupational standard for solar technicians or electricians.

Quality is a problem.

• No standards: GOGLA says "Somalia has no mandatory standards in place for off-grid solar products", and "no specific laws and regulations on e-waste".
• Poor products: the World Bank's Lighting Global programme said in 2022 that "Most of the currently available products are poor-quality".
• Imitations: a World Bank project report described "market spoilage due to low-quality imitation products".
• Batteries: the same report said the primary environmental, health and safety concerns were "likely linked to the recycling and disposal of spent batteries".

Jobs. Xidig found no estimate of solar jobs in Somalia. In the wider region, a 2022 census counted close to 50,000 workers in distributed renewable energy in Kenya and nearly 14,000 in Ethiopia. Companies in most countries surveyed named operations and maintenance, among other roles, as "hard to fill". Women hold 27% of full-time-equivalent jobs in off-grid solar (GOGLA data, cited by IRENA and ILO, 2024).

What this means.

• Skills gap: the money for solar is arriving faster than the skills to install and maintain it well.
• Where the gaps are: standards, certified training and battery handling are the clearest gaps, and each matches skills that diaspora professionals already hold.

Dependencies and implementation constraints

• Recognised qualifications: a national standard is needed so that training leads to recognised certificates.
• Tools and test equipment for training centres.
• Employer demand: companies must be willing to hire certified technicians.
• Battery collection: there is no operational lithium-ion recycling plant in East Africa (GIZ-supported study, Kenya).

Risks and unknowns

• Short courses: they may not produce job-ready technicians.
• Price pressure: cheap, uncertified products may still undercut quality.
• Figures: national capacity figures vary widely, from 41 MW of solar PV (academic study, 2023) to 100 MW of solar and wind (WEF opinion piece, 2025).

Questions members should verify before acting

1. Which TVET centres near you teach solar, and to what level?
2. Is any national certificate for electricians or solar technicians planned?
3. Which employers need technicians now, and what do they pay?
4. Where do spent batteries go in your town?

What is confirmed, and what isn't

Confirmed

• World Bank project figures on solar systems, contracts and facilities.
• The Save the Children and World Bank training figures.
• GOGLA's statement on missing standards.

Our interpretation

• Standards, certified training and battery handling are the clearest gaps.

Not yet verified

• The number of trained solar technicians in Somalia.
• The date of the Strathmore instructor course.
• Installed solar capacity nationally.

Relevant next steps

• Follow the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and the World Bank's energy projects for training components.
• Solar professionals: note your skills and location in Xidig so training centres and groups can find you.