“I feel like a solution provider now,” says Happiness Thomas, her voice carrying the quiet confidence of someone who has crossed an invisible line, one that separates learning from leading, and curiosity from capability.

Thomas is among a growing number of Nigerian women stepping into the country’s renewable energy space through installHER, a Lagos-based initiative designed to close the widening skills gap in the solar sector while tackling gender inequality in technical roles.

For the building technology graduate, the training has reshaped how she sees both her profession and Nigeria’s energy challenges. “Many buildings trap heat, so people spend more on fuel to cool them,” she explains. “If we design better and integrate renewable energy from the start, we reduce that cost.”

Her ambition now goes beyond installation. She wants to bridge construction and clean energy, embedding solar solutions into building systems rather than treating them as add-ons.

That sense of purpose reflects a broader shift taking place among the 23 women who graduated from installHER’s third cohort on March 19, 2026. Over three intensive weeks, they were trained in solar installation, system design, energy audits, maintenance, and basic business management, skills critical to a sector struggling with a shortage of technical manpower.

In the past 18 months alone, the programme has trained 101 women, steadily building a pipeline of female professionals in an industry where they remain largely underrepresented.

Despite increasing interest in renewable energy, women occupy just 8 per cent of technical roles in Nigeria’s sector, with most concentrated in non-technical functions such as administration, sales, and finance. Leadership representation is even thinner, with female-led firms accounting for less than 2 per cent of registered operators.

For participants, the training is as much about breaking psychological barriers as it is about acquiring technical knowledge.

Faith Bernard knows this well. A barber by profession, she had never imagined herself working on rooftops or handling solar equipment. “I applied because I needed an internship. I didn’t think much of it,” she recalls. “But once I started, I realised this was different. It opened my mind.”

Her first rooftop installation marked a turning point. “Climbing the roof for the first time, I realised I could actually do this. The fear was there, but I kept going,” she says.

Like many others in the programme, Bernard’s journey reflects a quiet defiance of entrenched gender norms that have long shaped career paths in Nigeria.

For Chinonso Echefu, who studied sociology, the challenge was initially intellectual. “When I saw the calculations and technical terms, I was scared,” she admits. “But watching our female tutor explain everything gave me confidence. I thought, if she can do it, I can too.”

This emphasis on representation, women teaching women, and women seeing themselves in technical roles, is central to the programme’s approach.

According to Chinwe Udo-Davis, the initiative’s driving force, the rationale is straightforward. “There aren’t enough people to deploy in the renewable energy sector. You will always have a limited workforce without women,” she says.

Her argument speaks to a deeper reality: Nigeria’s energy transition cannot succeed without significantly expanding its talent base. As demand for solar solutions rises—driven by erratic grid supply and escalating fuel costs, the need for skilled technicians has become more urgent.

Programmes like installHER are stepping into that gap, not only by equipping women with technical skills but also by redefining their place within the energy ecosystem.

The impact, however, goes beyond numbers.

For many participants, the training marks a shift in identity, from job seekers to professionals with agency and voice. “Here, I’m learning to take authority, speak confidently, and claim my space,” Bernard says. “I can see a future where I’m financially stable and respected for my work.”

That transformation is perhaps the programme’s most enduring outcome.

As Nigeria seeks to expand access to reliable and sustainable energy, the inclusion of women in technical roles offers a dual advantage: addressing workforce shortages while dismantling long-standing social barriers.

For Thomas and her peers, the opportunity is both immediate and far-reaching.

What begins as a three-week training programme is, in effect, the start of a broader reimagining of careers, of industries, and of who gets to build the future.

And in that future, women are no longer on the margins. They are, increasingly, at the centre, designing, installing, and powering change.