Hey people! Happy New Year!
It’s been a minute since I posted something on what I have been up to and what has taken me away from this blog. The truth is I might do the same this year, God keep us, but will strive to have more content in a later part of the year.
A major part of my professional year was devoted to learning how to do my job – finding business opportunities for a start up and also managing stakeholder engagement for a non-profit. In this post I would highlight a few projects I supported and workshops I took part of between March of 2019 and December 2019.
March 8 was International Women’s Day and The World Bank office in Abuja hosted a group of women-led and women-focused organizations in the Abuja Tech space to discuss a few things around visibility and growth in the tech industry.
In April, I led a workshop for women in leadership positions in the renewable energy to present information gathered from the non-profit’s experience with women at the grass root level and to also receive recommendations for a top-bottom strategy to support the women at the grass-root level.
Sometime in May, also led an advocacy workshop for women at the grass root level in Lagos, on renewable energy. Using the recommendations received at the previous workshop for women in leadership positions, women in management positions were included in panel discussions on the basics of making money using clean energy solutions and also how these solutions can be delivered to last mile communities. I also supported a research project that involved discussions with stakeholders across the solar components supply chain in Nigeria and a document was developed to ease the process for businesses in Nigeria.
In June, I supported a couple of sustainability projects executed by the non-profit, including an educational session for empowering secondary school students to take action with regards to climate change and a clean up exercise. I also got celebrated at work on my birthday.
In July, the results of the energy data and jobs project I supported in 2018 were presented at a formal launch, where state dignitaries, public and private sector stakeholders were invited to view the data collected on gender, jobs & productive use of energy and also learn how to use it to encourage decision making in their respective fields. Later on in the year, the findings from the research study was published in an industry journal.
A couple of more things happened between August and November.
I got to travel with the team on our advocacy project for political representatives in the South East, to showcase strides in the renewable energy sector and learn about what these representatives had been up to since the last time they participated in the learning workshop. I don’t have personal pictures from the event but I grabbed a bite of abacha for the first time here.
I had one of my first speaking engagements, where I represented the organization to discuss renewable energy on a panel and with an audience that had minimal knowledge about it and also showcased how technology has revolutionized the industry too. Also got to learn about the impact on other industries and of course, networked.
I supported a Used Lead Acid Battery – Proper Disposal advocacy training, did not take personal pictures from that day but I found one with my friend and SustyVibes‘ Abuja Lead – Aniebiet
I got a new job at renewable energy company in Lagos and had a beautiful send forth dinner along with a former colleague
I supported a project at the start of the year, focused on business models for minigrids and distribution companies to increase energy access and the insights were published here.
I also co-wrote a few articles: Local Content & Powering Jobs and GMO Policy Note
My former university’s alumni association reached out to me to say a few things about my experience in school. Take a look below:
That’s it for now, if there were more things I missed, I will definitely update this here.
After writing this long post, it’s either I’ll post monthly or write by grouping by activities whenever I return from a long hiatus like this one.
Love to hear from you in the comments section.
Yeside DS 