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Pushing for female engineers in Nigeria

In Nigeria, it’s unusual to find female field engineers.

But that is slowly changing as a new crop of female electrical engineers are being specially recruited by Rensource, a renewable energy company.

Anu Adasolum, the chief operating officer at Rensource, is at the forefront of this initiative.

"In terms of trying to promote people up, making sure that in the future we have supervisors and managers that are experienced female field engineers, we realized that we have to take it from the start so then we started a program where we recruit female engineers and basically train them."

Adasolum says she was inspired to start the training program after she had difficulty finding high-ranking female field engineers.

Rensource installs large scale solar hybrid systems to power homes, offices, or markets.

Engineer Esther Adegbaju has been with Rensource since late 2019.

"It is really interesting, it is tasking and I get the opportunity to help people you know, people have the stereotype of female engineers but the fact that I can actually do it is very very exciting and it is fulfilling for me."

Faced with a population boom that has sent carbon emissions soaring, oil-rich Nigeria is turning to renewable energy in a big way.

As the demand for renewable energy grows, Adasolum is hoping to bring more female engineers on board and change perceptions around female engineers.

"People are not comfortable with women carrying out physical activities for engineering work but that doesn't mean women aren't interested in it, they are not just given the opportunity to, and people feel fairly strongly about this. So we've actually had a husband call and informed me not to let his wife ever climb a roof even though that is exactly what she wanted to do."

Rensource currently employs 11 female electrical engineers.

Adasolum hopes this will inspire more engineering companies to hire more women in the sector, in an industry that is still largely male dominated.