Renewable Energy and Gender: Women’s Participation in Solar Energy Value Chains in Kaduna State, North West Nigeria

Gender-transformative approaches to renewable energy deployment recognise that women's participation in energy value chains as consumers, entrepreneurs, and technicians is both a development equity imperative and a market expansion strategy, yet empirical documentation of women's roles in solar energy value chains in Kaduna State remains limited. This study examines women's participation in solar energy value chains in Kaduna State, North West Nigeria, covering retail distribution, installation services, household system operation, and solar appliance-based enterprises. Mixed methods data collection combined structured surveys of 160 women engaged in or adjacent to solar energy value chains, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews with enterprise owners and programme managers. The study maps gender-differentiated participation patterns across value chain segments and analyses barriers to women's advancement including technical training access, mobility restrictions, social norms, and capital constraints. Results indicate that women constitute 61 percent of solar product retail customers but only 12 percent of installation technicians and 18 percent of enterprise owners in the sector. Organisations providing gender-targeted technical training and startup capital through women's cooperatives achieve significantly higher female technician retention rates. The study recommends gender-responsive design criteria for solar energy programmes and targeted vocational training investment through the Kaduna State Technical and Vocational Education Board. Keywords: gender and energy, women in solar, value chains, Kaduna State, renewable energy equity.