Subject: Lawal Omowumi
Location: Gbamu Gbamu, Nigeria
Date: November, 2017
Less than half of Nigeria’s 186 million people have access to electricity. But in the rural village of Gbamu Gbamu, newly installed utility poles and wires act as markers of a brighter future, powered by a new solar minigrid. The grid, an effort of local developers Rubitec Solar and Winrock’s USAID-funded Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project (REEEP), is empowering citizens and their enterprises, providing them with a better quality of life and more stable sources of income. Lawal Omowumi, pictured above, has ample time to show off the yield from the cocoa dryer she operates. But while Omowumi is eager to reap business benefits, she is equally excited for the changes the minigrid will bring to Nigeria’s hot nights. “Normally, villagers sleep outside. But when there is light [meaning solar power] in the midnight they will have fans and sleep there,” she says, pointing to the interior of a nearby home. “They sleep inside and enjoy themselves.”