Meet Nigeria’s Solar Queen, Damilola Asaleye Who Has Empowered Over 6000 Women In Renewable Energy (Co-founder ASHDAM SOLAR Company Limited)

Damilola Asaleye is the dynamic co-founder of Ashdam Solar Company Limited in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. She is also the vice president of the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria. On today’s episode of “The Boss Room“, Damilola speaks about co-founding a solar company, her mission, vision and challenges in the energy sector.

Damilola has empowered over 6000 girls and 250 women through various initiatives. Aside from providing communities with affordable and renewable energy, she is engaged in supporting women in STEM.

Damilola has a Masters degree in physics from the prestigious University of Ibadan. She’s currently on a PHD research, Energy Engineering at Monster Technological University, Ireland, with specialty in renewable energy, micro grid and demand side management.

Damilola has won several awards and she’s recognized as one of the foremost women in renewable energy in Nigeria. She’s a wife and a mother of three beautiful girls.

Inspiration to lead a company in the renewable energy sector

What inspired me to lead a company in the renewable energy sector is because when I was young, I saw a lot of people suffering with energy poverty. Lack of access to constant electricity and also highly dependency of the country on fossil fuel, Fuel scarcity & riots at that time. This motivated me to seek for alternatives that are available to fossil fuel dependency.

Mission & vision of Ashdam Solar, and contribution to global efforts in sustainable energy

The main mission of Ashdam Solar is to solve energy poverty, and we are doing this through different ways. We deploy solar mini grids to rural communities, we also deploy solar home installations on installment payment plans for people in the urban areas. Ashdam Solar also engages in renewable energy training, we have a renewable energy training institute. We also contribute to sustainable development goals in different areas and in different dimensions.We prioritize female inclusion in what we do. We had SDG 5, we are naturally in SDG 7, where we are creating affordable and easy access to energy. Ashdam Solar also provides quality education, global partnership and economic development.

Innovative technologies or strategies Ashdam Solar has employed to increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact.

Ashdam Solar is into the deployment of solar mini grids, we make use of remote monitoring to monitor the deployment of our solar grids to seven communities in the rural area. We have the internet of things added in our deployment….we also have prepaid smart meters to detect electricity theft, we have community shared values. We have innovative projects such as, trainings for women in the renewable energy sector, and several projects such as the Solar Queen scholarship training program, we also have the energy sector women leadership initiative which we employed the curriculum of Power Africa to carry out the training, where women in the renewable energy sector were taught about soft skills such as customer service, emotional intelligience, etc.

Another project is the ‘Pay As You Go Rural Solutions’ for market women, we also have the deployment of solar system on an installment payment plan which we call the ‘pay small small scheme’.

Innovation and customer satisfaction

Our customers are precious to us, therefore our team is highly trained to attend to them. We prioritize customer service training for our staff. We have a right rate of customer satisfaction. We also offer some free maintenance services for our clients.

Funding sources utilized to grow and support Ashdam Solar

Investments from some impact investors has enabled us to deploy solar services, making it easier for us to acquire products, also getting some national and international grants. We’ve won some challenges too.

Gender diversity and inclusion

More than 50% of our leadership are women, 40% of our workforce is females.. We are very interested in gender inclusion and priority, we create more enabling environment for females to be active in every role, not only managerial or leadership roles, but even in technical roles.

We have company policies that ensure equality and gender diversity. For instance, Women are allowed to take maternity leave when they give birth to children.

Collaborations and partnerships

Weve collaborated with power africa to implement the Energy sector women leadership training, we partnered with USADF to deploy solar systems for market women, partnered with ALL ON to deploy solar mini grid for seven communities in rural areas, we partnered with ITA Agrihub to train youths on renewable energy in the Agricultural sector by providing technical know how.

Challenges in a male-dominated field

Most people feel women lack technical know how, i get a lot of questions from prospective clients i meet for the first time doubting if i can handle the technical aspect of the job. Career advancement is another challenge for women mostly due to marriage and pregnancy. For instance, a pregnant woman cannot climb the roof to install a solar product.

Advice for aspiring women in the energy sector

My advice to younger women is to belief in themselves, be confident and build capacity. Capacity, knowledge and technical know how is what can open doors for you. Never give up.

Balancing work & family as a woman

I have paid and unpaid assistants, good time management, i make sure there is a balance between work time and family time.

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