Posted by Tony Okechukwu
A non-governemental Organization, Solar Sister Nigeria, has called on women to be at the forefront of driving clean and sustainable energy access in Nigeria.
Solar Sister is an organization that seeks to eradicate energy poverty by empowering women with economic opportunity.
Speaking during an interactive session involving development partners and media practitioners in Abuja, the Country Manager, Olasimbo Sojinrin, also advocated for gender equality in Nigeria's energy access and implementation policies.
She noted that most of the women in the rural areas are living in poverty because they lack access to power, saying that the only possible way to eradicate poverty is to provide women with clean and modern energy.
Sojinrin observed that the organization is working to provide communities with modern energy like solar lamp and clean cookstoves, adding that at same time, it will empower rural women by making them solar entrepreneurs.
"Solar lamp provides an opportunity for our population to have clean modern access to technology.
The solar light might not replace the grid but it is the alternative right now for community that has no electricity.
Only women can lead us to clean energy," she said.
She explained that since the launching of Solar Sister in Nigeria, 1000 women entrepreneurs have been trained in 23 states and the beneficiaries have been able to impact their immediate communities.
Sojinrin said: "What we have in Nigeria is that a lot of people are not actually connected to the national grid and so are in perpetual darkness.
What we do is to give them access to modern clean energy, which they can use to light their home as well as stoves.
"We have women who are distributing solar lamps and clean cook-stoves in all the communities across Nigeria.
So the beneficiaries of this organization have been able to impact the community in which they stay, even to the extent of improving security in the areas thereby people don't have to be in darkness anymore."
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