Power For All: “Gender Specific Approach To Renewables Will Reduce Energy Poverty In Nigeria”
Ify Malo, the Campaign Director, Power For All, Nigeria, a global renewable energy advocacy organization, has said energy poverty can be largely reduced via gender specific approaches to renewable energy generation and systems distribution.
Revealing energy poverty number in Nigeria at 60 percent, of which 90 percent reside in the rural areas while the other 40 percent with access to on-grid electricity are situated in urban areas, Malo says women are highly affected by poor power supply. She also emphasized that lack of electricity in the rural areas, mid and lower class families, lengthens the amount of time women spend on household chores and subsistence agricultural production.
Rather than wait for on-grid power systems to get to the rural areas, Malo recommends that government, civil societies and communities invest in mini off-grid renewable systems that can power households, cottage industries, schools and healthcare centers to avoid maternal-and-child mortality, and encourage female entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
CIFOR