On a training site in Lagos, a group of women gather beneath a rooftop, helmets on, waiting their turn to climb. It is a small scene, but one that captures a larger shift underway in Nigeria’s energy sector, one that is quietly redefining who gets to build the country’s solar future.
For years, women have been present in Nigeria’s renewable energy industry, but mostly at the margins of its technical core. Data from the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria shows that while women are active in the sector, only 8% work in technical roles such as system design and installation. The rest are concentrated in non-technical (64 %) and administrative (28%) functions.
That imbalance is no longer just a gender issue. It is becoming a capacity problem.
“There are not enough people to deploy in the renewable energy sector,” says Chinwe Udo-Davis, CEO of Instollar, a Lagos-based renewable energy workforce platform, and initiator of Instollher, a training for women in solar installation and technical skills. “You will always have a limited workforce without women.”
As demand for off-grid power accelerates, driven by unreliable grid supply and rising fuel costs, the shortage of skilled technicians is beginning to constrain growth. Into that gap steps a new, unlikely workforce.
From sidelines to systems
In its fourth cohort, Instollher trained 23 women over three weeks, equipping them with skills in solar installation, system design, and energy auditing. It is a small intervention in numbers, but significant in implication: moving women from support roles into the technical backbone of the industry.
For many of the trainees, the transition is less about switching careers and more about expanding what is possible.
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Faith Bernard, a barber and loctician before joining, did not initially see solar as a path. “I just applied because I was looking for somewhere to do my internship,” she says. But the training quickly reshaped her outlook.
“I’m not from a science background, so at first it was difficult, the calculations, the terminology,” she says. “But I kept learning, asking questions. Then I realised. I can actually do this.”
That moment of recognition is critical in a sector where the pipeline is already thin. According to data, women account for just 17% of STEM enrolments in Nigerian universities, limiting the future supply of technical talent.
Reframing the work
Part of the challenge has been perception. Solar work is often reduced to manual installation—an image that reinforces gender stereotypes and discourages entry.
But the reality, trainees say, is more complex.
“When I told my friends I was learning solar, they asked if I would be climbing roofs,” says Chinonso Echefu, who studied sociology. “But the real challenge is in the design and energy audit.”
Those upstream functions, calculating energy needs, designing systems, troubleshooting, are where much of the industry’s value lies. Opening them up to women expands not just participation, but productivity.
Read also Instollar empowers women as certified solar technicians
Echefu, who completed her national service last year, deliberately chose solar as an alternative to more conventional career paths. “I wanted something different, something that is growing,” she says. “Even if people don’t fully see it now, they will.”
Nigeria is already one of Africa’s largest markets for decentralised solar solutions. As adoption deepens, the need for skilled designers, auditors, and technicians will only increase.
Confidence as catalyst
Beyond technical skills, the training is also addressing a less visible barrier: confidence in male-dominated environments.
Bernard recalls earlier experiences working alongside men. “Sometimes they try to put your self-esteem down,” she says. “But now, I know how to stand my ground.”
Exposure to female instructors during the programme also played a role. “Seeing a woman teach and explain everything—it built my confidence,” she adds.
That kind of representation remains rare. While women hold about 25.6 percent of leadership roles across the broader energy sector, their presence in top-tier technical leadership within renewables drops to around 7–8 percent.
Without targeted interventions, that gap is unlikely to close.
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From trainees to problem-solvers
For some participants, the training is already shaping broader ambitions.
Happiness Thomas, who studied building technology, sees solar as part of a wider solution to Nigeria’s energy inefficiencies. “Many buildings trap heat, so people spend more on fuel to cool them,” she says. “If we design better and integrate renewable energy from the start, we reduce that cost.”
Her goal is to bridge construction and clean energy—embedding solar into building systems rather than treating it as an add-on.
“I feel like a solution provider now,” she says.
That shift, from job seeker to systems thinker, highlights the deeper potential of programmes like Instollher. They are not just filling labour gaps; they are seeding new ways of approaching energy challenges.
The cost of exclusion
Despite rising participation in decentralised solar, women still own fewer than 2 percent of registered energy companies in Nigeria’s Joint Qualification System. The implication is a sector that is both labour-constrained and ownership-skewed. For an industry expected to play a central role in Nigeria’s energy transition, that imbalance carries risks.
Limiting women’s participation in technical roles reduces the available talent pool at a time when demand is expanding. It also narrows the diversity of perspectives needed to design solutions for a country with varied energy needs. Put simply, exclusion is inefficient.
A gradual shift
None of the women in the programme have begun earning from their new skills. But their expectations have shifted. “I can see a future in this,” Bernard says. “If I stay on this path, I will be financially stable.”
Echefu echoes the sentiment, more cautiously. “I just know I’ll be glad I didn’t give up,” she says.
There is also realism about the road ahead. “I’m stepping into a world full of men,” Bernard adds. “But I will make sure I’m not pushed aside.”
Scaling the pipeline
Instollher plans to train 10,000 women technicians by 2030, creating a generation of women-led impact within Africa’s green workforce.
Nigeria’s renewable energy sector is at an inflection point. As grid constraints persist and energy costs rise, solar adoption is likely to accelerate. But without a corresponding expansion in skilled labour, growth could stall.
Training women for technical roles offers a dual advantage: expanding the workforce while addressing long-standing gender gaps.
For now, the change is incremental, measured in small cohorts and individual stories. But on rooftops across Lagos, the signals are becoming harder to ignore.
A sector once defined by who was absent is slowly being reshaped by those who are stepping in.
