Nigerians press for solar jobs and electricity, with little success

In sun-drenched Nigeria, 14 new solar farms were supposed to jumpstart a meager solar industry and generate huge amounts of power, about one-fifth as much as the country’s entire electric grid offers on a good day. “We were very excited because we were pioneers,” said Najim Animashaun, managing director of Nova Solar Power, who was working on one of the projects in 2016. It's not that demand is low for clean power — the smallest solar systems for homes have exploded in popularity and created jobs — but big developers haven't been able to overcome Nigeria's reputation as a risky place to do business.