- Women have a key role to play in the scaling of clean energy services.
- There is a need for innovative solutions to the barriers preventing women participation in the sector.
The Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, has stated that women have key roles to play in providing solutions that enable the acceleration of clean energy services. The minister, represented by her special adviser at the National roundtable advocacy on enabling policy and market environments for Women Entrepreneurship in the Clean Energy sector, notes that women are uniquely positioned to connect communities to deliver sustainable energy products and services.
The minister stated: “To advance this role of women in Nigeria’s sustainable energy sector, it is vital that relevant key stakeholders mainstream innovative approaches to proactively engage women in their efforts towards energy access.” The Country Director, Solar Sister Nigeria, Mrs. Olasimbo Sojinrin, also highlighted key stakeholders need to innovatively approach and proactively engage women in their efforts to scale clean energy in the country. She added that innovative solutions are needed to some of the bottlenecks, such as lack of finance and technical skills that stifle women participation in the sector. “By selling, maintaining and financing sustainable energy products and services, women become active change agents in the energy sector,“ Sojinrin added.
The head of PMU, Nigeria Electrification Project at the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Anita Otubu, noted that the Agency is committed to ensuring women participation in the energy sector as both energy service providers and beneficiaries.
Otubu added that of the 1358 Solar Homes Systems (SHS) connections recorded for Micro, Small and Mediums (MSMEs) under the SHS component of the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), 250 were deployed in female-owned MSMEs.