Determinants of Farm Household’s Willingness to Adopt Solar Energy Resource in Rural Oyo State, Nigeria

Determinants of Farm Household’s Willingness to Adopt Solar Energy Resource in Rural Oyo State, Nigeria

Ganiyu, M. O.*¹, Raufu, M. O.², Agbogunleri, O.W³, Miftaudeen-Rauf, A.A⁴, Orisakwe, E. U.⁵

^{1,2, 3}Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria 

⁴Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management, University of Ilorin Kwara, Nigeria 

⁵Directorate of Research, Innovation and Information Technology, National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja Nigeria 

*Corresponding Author 

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.809017

Received: 05 September 2024; Accepted: 16 September 2024; Published: 26 September 2024

ABSTRACT

The willingness to adopt solar energy resource (SER) for farming operations is currently a topic of growing recognition in the context of sustainable agriculture and inclusive rural development. This study analyzed the determinants of farm households’ willingness to adopt SER in rural Oyo state, Nigeria. Primary data were collected with structured questionnaire from 45 respondents due to the low population size of SER users in the study area. The data were described with frequency percentage, composite score and analyzed with ordered logit regression. The findings identified that the willingness to adopt SER was categorized into rarely willing, willing and strongly willing by composite score and it was found that most (68.89%) of the respondents are willing to adopt SER. The challenges militating against farm households’ willingness to adopt SER include high cost of solar energy devices, weather effect on SER, risk of theft and vandalism, small size of farm holdings among others. Also, ordered logit model revealed that marital status 1.493 (P<0.01), community-based association 1.531(P<0.05), solar cost price -2.547 (P<0.1) and annual farm income 0.887 (P<0.05) were significantly determined farm households’ willingness to adopt SER. Therefore, the study concludes that SER is recognized as one of the emerging technologies for agricultural transformation and development. Hence, equipping farms with solar energy technology requires strengthening community-based association, security alerts, farm holdings expansion as well as subsidizing the installation cost of solar energy panels. It was recommended that the stakeholder and government policy interventions should support investment in SER for developing agricultural practices.

Keywords: Determinants, Farm Households, Willingness to Adopt, Solar Energy Resource, Rural Oyo

INTRODUCTION

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) for year 2030 summoned all nations to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all as composed in the 7th agenda. The importance of energy resource as viewed from this SDG 2030 should not be underrated and it is a must to have stable energy source for economic development at both local and national region of the continents. Solar energy technology is one most essential types of green energy that is highly demanding by people to meet adequate energy needs for industrial and domestic uses. The recognition of this energy is widely growing everyday especially in Africa because of its efficacy in generating lightening output and powers all electronic machines to aid socio-economic development.

Research evidence showed that for socio-economic development, survival of individuals as well as sustainable societal growth solar energy inform of electrical power generation is immensely essential (Agyekum et al., 2020). Obviously, solar energy has almost replaced the so-called hydro-electronic power supply due to instability of current/power supply. Urban areas have considerably taken the advantage of solar energy use as required by the livelihood activities. In short, the discovery of this particular energy has relatively impacted on the economic growth and prosperity of nations, which in turn provides comfort for living. As exactly expected, the associated economic benefits of energy forms have been on the appreciation over the years and have further been exacerbated by the dynamics of population growth, urbanization and rapid industrialization (Filippini and Hunt, 2011). Solar power systems have been advanced as stable, environmentally friendly and cost-effective options to energy provision with a favourable weather condition (Ashnani et al., 2014).

Overall, sunlight/solar energy are a kind of natural renewable resource whose supply is not fixed or stock. It is a flow resource by classification based on renewability. Solar energy is a clear form of energy that converts sunlight into green energy. It reduces the cost of imported oil while also lowering CO2 emissions. It is the least expensive renewable energy source which aids in keeping electricity supply stable (Tanveer et al., 2021). Solar energy access is affected by many factors including the affordability and willingness to adopt the available energy solutions by human populations or communities and it is therefore no wonder that an estimated 840 million people worldwide have no access to electricity with millions more having to live with unreliable or limited access.

The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, constant energy availability and increased energy supply are some of the derivative advantages of solar energy (Heng et al., 2020). In addition, solar power systems have been endorsed as being reliable (Worku et al., 2018), reduce poverty, provide comfort, improve quality of life and ensure the posterity of businesses, especially small and medium scale enterprises (Azimoh et al., 2015). As part of its benefits, prior estimations made by the International Energy Agency suggested that solar energy will be the largest source of electricity by the year 2050 (IEA, 2014).

Furthermore, energy is very important and remains as a predominant component of a country’s growth and economic development (Ali et al., 2020), a successful economy is rooted in a web of energy resources that generate electrical power for man’s use (Kumar and Kaushik, 2022). Despite technological advancements, most economies rely solely on fossil fuels to generate electricity (Tanveer et al., 2021). Due to the rapid consumption of conventional energy resources such as crude oil, coal, and natural gas, many initiatives taken all over the world have addressed towards the efficient use or replacement of the resources.

Several renewable energy sources have been introduced and argued as alternatives to traditional sources to protect environmental resources and improve the quality of life. With the growing concerns about Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and consequent climate change, renewable energy sources have become more attractive options for power generation around the world (Luthra et al., 2015). Across the world, solar power has significantly reduced the use of generator that emits GHG using fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels account for two-thirds of the world’s rising energy demand (International Energy Agency, 2020). However, due to the massive consumption of scarce resources caused by the growth of industry, population, and technological advancement, these resources have begun to shrink (Atulkar, 2022; Sahu et al., 2021). The case of Nigeria at present, about fuel subsidy removal on hand and lack of a functioning refinery for crude oil on the other hand remains a major economic challenge and seriously affecting the livelihood of many households and even killing a lot of industries.

There is growing recognition that the world is shifting toward renewable energy sources in response to energy security and climate change concerns (Das et al., 2021) and the transforming in energy use is much relevant in Nigeria, for sure. The factors shifting the use of renewable energy sources (e. g hydro, wind, and solar) as preferred options, are not far fetch as they are including environmentally friendly, technological advancement and cost efficiency which drive consumers’ preferences toward alternative energy sources (Roy and Mohapatra, 2021). According to the International Energy Agency report (2021), renewable targets are expected to account for more than half of the global increase in power supply by 2021. Solar energy is fairly justified as an alternative to all other possible sources of energy mentioned in the above.

However, rural households whose major livelihood occupation depends on agricultural practices are deprived of electricity supply. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including Nigeria is plagued by an electricity crisis characterized by frequent and long periods of power outages due to a deficiency of power generation capacity (Amoah et al., 2019; Nkosi and Dikgang, 2018). In line with observation, solar power use in most farm settlements in Nigeria is very poor despite being the major centre of food production, raw materials, employment and revenue for most people of this country.

Essentially, solar energy resource has many uses in agricultural sector in the area of food crop preservation, post-harvest operation, livestock breeding/poultry brooding, frozen fish asides rural electrification. Past studies showed that countries in the world have successfully converted the solar energy into artificial source of sun-drying their farm produce (Worku et al., 2018). This calls for necessary consideration by the researchers and other stakeholders as an emerging trend for agricultural development and inclusive local economic growth. The farmers’ willingness to adopt solar power supply is steadily appreciable although far below the rate at which the urban areas accessed and adopted it because the resources needed to make it available in rural settings are lacking. In abiding this, the study wants to address the following research questions:

What are the socio-economic characteristics of the farm households in the rural areas of Oyo state, Nigeria? What are the respondents’ modes of awareness of solar energy technology and their various farm enterprises? Does the respondents willing to adopt solar energy resource SER? What factors determine the willingness to adopt solar energy resource among farm households in the study area? What are the constraints faced by the rural households in the use of solar energy to generate power for farm productions?

The general objective of the study is to analyze the determinants of farm households’ willingness to adopt solar energy resource (SER) in the rural areas of Oyo state, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study are to: describe socio-economic characteristics of the farm households in rural area of Oyo state, discuss respondents’ modes of awareness of solar energy and their various farm enterprises, assess their willingness to adopt solar energy resource, examine the determinants of willingness to adopt solar energy resource among farm households and highlight the constraints faced by the farm households to access SER for convenient farm productions.

Moreover, the study made a scientific assumption (hypothesis) that no relationship exists among the socio-economic characteristics, farming practices and the willingness to adopt solar energy resource which is going to be tested later in the next section.

Conjunctively, understanding the concept of this study is very important to plan for the possibility of having solar energy devices in several farm locations in the nearest future in Nigeria as emerging technological tool that develops agriculture. The economic productivity gain in farm settlements may be redundant, without tangible sources of energy generation to complement various farm operations. Parallel to this, farm households are encouraged to shift to the use of green energy which will also be a means of promoting agriculture technology as well as digital farming.

The analysis of this study has valuable implications on environmental sustainability, local economic viability, energy safety, technological acceptance and others. The limitations associated to adoption of solar energy use and farm households’ willingness to adopt may include the financial constraints, technical expertise, geographical viability, cultural and social factor, infrastructure and connectivity, dependency on weather condition and so on. Understanding and addressing these limitations is crucial for devising effective strategies to promote solar energy adoption in agricultural contexts.

Therefore, the willingness of farming households to adopt solar energy resource is a multifaceted topic with significant potential for positive environmental and economic impacts. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on renewable energy adoption in rural settings. The findings will not only aid in the development of targeted policies but also provide valuable insights for organizations aiming to enhance sustainability and energy efficiency in agricultural communities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study area

The study was carried out in rural area of Oyo state, Nigeria from the periods between December 2022 and January 2024. Oyo state is located in the south-west of Nigeria. It has a total land area of 28,454 km2 and is ranked 14th in Nigeria by size. The state had a population of 5,591,589 people according to the 2006 population census and has a density of 200 people per km-square. The state comprises thirty-three (33) local government areas, of which twenty-eight (28) are considered to be rural local government areas distributed across three (3) senatorial districts and fourteen (14) federal constituencies, and also have four (4) Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Zones. The local government areas are in charge of local grassroots politics and the governance of the people and can be classified into urban and rural local government areas. If large area of the state is under rural settings then there is much concern on how to make green energy present in all corners of the places occupied by people there for reliable electrification which is also follow the SDG seventh agenda in the year 2030.  Also, Oyo state is strategically located about 128 km from Lagos (the first capital city in Nigeria and 530 km from Abuja, the new federal capital. The state is made-up of Ibadan city, which was the colonial administrative headquarters for the south-western region. The state is mainly inhabited by the Yoruba ethnic group, and other tribes from Igbo or Hausa lands who are permanently/ temporarily settled there. Majority of the people (especially the indigent ones) have a predilection for living in high-density urban centres (Adegoke and Jegede, 2016). Although their mother language is Yoruba but they are very fluent in English speaking especially the elite people. Agricultural activities formed the primary occupation of most inhabitants while some others people involved in teaching, health provision services under both government and non –government, banking, trading, driving, art & crafts and so on. The climate is equatorial, notably with dry and wet seasons with relatively high humidity. The dry season lasts from November to March while the wet season starts from April and ends in October. Average daily temperature ranges between 25°C (77°F) and 35°C (95°F), almost throughout the year this favours the cultivation of crops like maize, yam, cassava, millet, rice, plantains, cocoa, palm produce, cashew et cetera. The prevailing vegetation type of Oyo state is that of Guinea Savanna woodland which is characterized by species of Derived Savanna especially the Ogbomoso, Oyo and Saki zones while Ibadan – Ibarapa zone is a Tropical rain forest. In summary, Oyo state is quite large in size and more than half of the state is agrarian areas where majority of people suffered from regular power supply for farming improvement.

Sampling Procedure and Data Collection

For the purpose of this study a two-stage sampling method was adopted firstly, 15 local government areas were randomly sampled across all the rural areas. Secondly, from each of these local government areas, a list of all the farm households belonging to Local Level Institutions (LLI) was obtained from where 45 representative farm households were purposively selected. The purposive sampling needs to do with the respondents’ awareness rate of solar energy technology, so those who have information about it were actually considered. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire and enumerators. The information obtained from the respondents include socio-economic characteristics, type of farm business, farm annual revenue, different solar packages, purchase price of solar panels, monthly expenditure on various alternative energy sources, mode of creating awareness, willingness rate of adoption categorized into strongly willing, willing, and unwilling and some of the constraints associated to solar power adoption.

Data Analysis and Model Specification

The analytical techniques employed include descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage tables, mean, standard deviation, composite score and ordered logit regression.

Composite score

Willingness to adopt solar energy devices was categorized into strongly willing =2, willing = 1, and rarely willing = 0 as used by Salimonu and Falusi (2007): High willingness rate of adoption or upper category = (Mean + SD) to 2, Intermediate willingness rate of adoption or medium category = between lower and upper category limit and Low willingness rate of adoption or lower category = 0 to (Mean – SD).

Ordered logit regression model

An ordered logit model was employed in examining the factors that determine the respondents’ willingness rate of solar energy adoption in the study area. In order to explore the correlates of respondents willingness to adopt solar energy with the variables thought to be important in explaining willingness of adoption of solar energy, an ordered logistic model is estimated with dependent variable being in the polytomous variables of whether the household is strongly willing =2, willing = 1, and rarely willing = 0, an ordered logit model is generally specified as y* = x′ β + ε

Where x and β are standard variables and parameter matrices respectively and ε is a vector matrix of normally distributed error terms. Obviously predicted grades (y*) are unobserved. It is however, possibly to observe the following:

y = 0 if y* ≤ 0

y = 1 if 0 < y* ≤ μ1

y = 2 if μ1 < y* ≤ μ2

where μ1 and μ2 are the cut points i.e. the threshold variables in the logit model. The threshold variables are unknown and they indicate the discrete category that the latent variable falls into. They are determined in the maximum likelihood estimation procedure for the ordered logit.

Given the equation of likelihood estimation procedure for the ordered logit as follow:

y = willingness rate of adoption of solar power was categorized into (high) strongly willing =2, (intermediate) willing = 1, and (low) rarely willing = 0 using the composite score approach.

X₁ = Marital status (Dummy =1 if married; 0 otherwise),

X₂ = Member of community association (Yes = 1; No = 0),

X₃ = Weather effect (Yes = 1; No = 0)

X₄ = Asset ownership (Yes = 1; No = 0)

X₅ = Solar cost price (Naira)

X₆ = Farm annual income (Naira)

X₇ = Crop enterprise (Yes = 1; No = 0)

X₈ = Livestock enterprise (Yes = 1; No = 0)

X₉ = Crop and livestock (Yes = 1; No = 0)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Socio-economic characteristics of respondents

The result presented in Table 1 describes the socio-economic characteristics of respondents, it shows that male comprised 64.44% of the farm households while female comprised 35.56% them. It is noted that the permutation of farm households including male and female respondents results into an outcome of male twice times their female counterparts. Thus this result signifies that males’ adoption rate of solar energy technology is more than female in the rural areas. With respect to marital status, married farm households are more than the non-married ones when considering the willingness rate of adoption of solar power, specifically 77.78% of them are married and the rest 22.22% are non-married according to this study. Descriptively, the primary occupation of majority (44.44%) of the sampled respondents is farming, while 20% of them each involved in art/crafts, civil services and the rest (15.56%) of them engaged in trading. It was observed that farming activities preoccupied among the respondents. In term of credit access, 93.33% of the respondents have access to credit while the remaining (6.67%) are unable to access credit in the study area. It is envisaged that the access to credit can determine the acceptability or adoption rate of solar energy use in the various farming operations, most importantly the livestock keepers. Community based association is an important medium through which more information about the adoption of solar energy within the local axis can spread, the analysis reveals that 82.22% of the respondents belong to community based association while 17.78% of them do not belong to association. It implies that the most of the households find their associations more important to determine willingness to adopt the solar package. In addition, the distribution of farm income earns annually was presented here and it reveals that almost every household (97.78%) realized maximum amount of N 500000 and above while a few (2.22%) of them realized income of N 500000 or less with an average income of N 143466.7 per annual. The age distribution shows that 37.77% of them fell in the age range of 31-40 years, 33.33% of them were within the age of 51-60 years, and 26.67% fell within the ages of 41-50 years. On the average, the age of farm households is 46.02 years indicating that the respondents are still youths and they are expected to perform actively in farming activities. The sampled households comprising 51.1% have household size of 5 members or less, however, 48.89% of them have household size between 6-10 members with the mean value of approximately 5 members. Based on the educational status as found in this result, 53.33% of the respondents spent 12 years and more to acquire education, 42.22% of them had between 7-12 years attendance and the rest (4.44%) of them spent 6 years or less  to acquire basic education. The average year of education is 13.33 years and this is an indication that the farm households attained at least secondary education. The educational background of course, stands to influence the awareness or adoption of new innovations all thing being equal.

Table 1: Descriptive analysis of socio-economic characteristics (n= 45)

Source: Data computation, 2023

Willingness rate of adoption of solar energy technology by the respondents

The study further categorized the willingness rate of adoption of solar energy into rarely willing, willing and strongly willing among the farm households. This is achieved using a composite score obtained by rating the willingness rate of adoption of solar energy. A respondent can score a maximum of 2 points if he or she strongly willing to adopt solar energy and a minimum of 0 point if he or she is rarely willing.

The mean score for willingness rate of adoption is 1.1333 and the standard deviation is 0. 54772. Based on this, high willingness rate of adoption or upper category = Mean + SD to 2 = 1.68, intermediate willingness rate of adoption or medium category = between lower and upper category limit = 0.58558 to 1.68 and low willingness rate of adoption or lower category = 0 to (Mean – SD) = 0 to 0.58558.

According to table 2 the intermediate rate is 68.89 % for the willing respondents, followed by high rate (22.22%) that is strongly willing and then low rate (8.89%) in the case of rarely willing. This implies that the majority of the respondents fell in the intermediate willingness rate of adoption of solar energy in the study area. The mean value of 1.1333 implies that an average farm household who are interested in the adoption of solar power to aid a couple of farming operations is closed to two-third.

Table 2: Distribution of willingness rate of solar energy adoption

Source: Data computation, 2023       Hint: (mean =1.1333, std. dev= 0. 54772)

Modes of getting awareness of solar energy resource by the respondents

The different modes of obtaining information on solar energy as a stable source of generating light are discussed in the Table 3. The finding reveals that a substantive proportion (64.44%) of the respondents acquired details information on solar energy use for light supply through friends and family relatives, 31.11% of them were informed of the benefit of this device through radio medium, while 2.22% each of them sourced their information through television and newspaper or magazine respectively. This result evident that the survey is correctly done in the rural settlement parts of Nigeria, since people there could only share information by a kin relationship among themselves like family, relatives and friends. Alternatively, they also depend on radio which is one of the easiest mode of receiving information in the local communities. Television and magazine are rarely use as media of sharing information and awareness because both of them are lacking in the villages.

Table 3: Distribution of respondents based on modes of awareness of solar energy resource

Source: Data computation, 2023

Farm production enterprises managed by the respondents

The farm production enterprises cover a wide range of agricultural practices from crop cultivation to livestock farming. Actually, this study observed that a substantive percentage (53.33%) of selected farm households establish both crop and livestock, 26.67% of them solely involve in livestock enterprise while 20.0% of them also practice crop farming according to Table 4. It signifies that the respondents largely managed crop and livestock farms in the study area. In essence, farming households are the bedrock of food production, and in the light of this more resources like solar energy resource (SER) is needed for massive production.

Table 4:  Distribution of respondents based on production enterprises

Source: Data computation, 2023.

Constraints faced by the farm households in the use of solar energy resource SER

Going by the result of this study, solar energy resource (SER) in the study area within the period of this survey is not without constraints. The major constraints observed as shown in Table 5 include high cost of solar energy devices, small size of farm holding, weather effect on SER, risk of theft and vandalism, limited technical know-how and storage/backup system of SER. High initial cost of SER is the most prominent constraints comprising 88.89% respondents, followed by weather effect on SER with 60.0%, risk of theft and vandalism comprising 55.56% respondents, small size of farm holding consisting of 51.11%, limited technical know-how with 44.44% respondents and storage/backup system of SER comprising 31.11% of the respondents     in the study area. It signifies that the respondents largely encountered with the problem of increasing prices of SER supply and it is even much with the present rising prices of commodities in Nigeria. Generally, some of these challenges are theoretically viewed to be directly affecting households’ willingness rate of adoption of solar energy resource SER, especially in the developing countries like Nigeria.

Table 5: Constraints faced by farm households in the use of solar energy resource (SER)

Source: Data computation, 2023.           **multiple responses

Determinants of willingness rate of adoption of solar energy resource estimated by ordered logit regression

Table 6 shows the determinants of willingness rate of adoption of solar energy resource estimated by ordered logit regression. The analysis yields a probability value of 0.0179 which indicates the joint significant of all included explanatory variables. Four explanatory variables were significant in the model specified out of nine variables. Marital status used as a dummy variable is significant at (P<0.01) level and positively influenced the willingness rate of adoption of SER. It implies that as more farm households are married their willingness to invest in renewable energy technology also increases. The existence of community based association also determines the willingness to invest in renewable energy technology by the rural dwellers. As shown in table 6, it was found that member of community association is statistically significant at (P<0.05) level with a positive implication on SER adoption. This result signifies that farm households who participate in community based association are more likely to adopt SER in their villages ceteris paribus. In addition, the cost price of SER has negative effect on the households willingness to adopt SER and significant at (P<0.1) level. The finding indicates that a higher cost price reduces the probability of farm households’ willingness rate of SER adoption in the study area. This is also in line with a prior expectation.  The annual income of the farm household is found to be one important factor in households’ decision to adopt SER. The study shows that the income of households has a positive and statistically significant (P<0.1) effect on willingness rate of SER adoption. This is indicated that as income increases the respondents are more likely to adopt solar power supply as alternative to hydro-electric power generation. However, the coefficients of crop and livestock enterprises have positive relationship with the willingness rate of SER adoption but not significant at any levels. The direct association between farm production (crop and livestock enterprises) and the willingness rate of SER adoption suggests the need for further research to actually measure the contribution of SER in Nigeria at large. Again, weather effect is strongly related to the use of SER, this finding revealed that weather has a negative influence on the willingness rate of SER adoption although not significant. This is likely to occur with the changing weather condition brought by wet and dry seasons. Lastly, asset ownership shows positive association with the willingness rate of SER adoption and non-significant impact. This study contributes to the role plays by ownership issue on adoption of innovation in the local areas.

Table 6: Determinants of willingness rate of adoption of solar energy resource using ordered logit model

Significant at P<0.01 ***, P<0.05 **, P<0.1*

Source: Data computation, 2023

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This study analyzed the determinants of farm households’ willingness rate to adopt solar energy resource in rural Oyo state, Nigeria. The socio-economic findings revealed that the respondents are in their active age, most of them are male, married and they have formal education, at least primary level. Also, a substantive percentage of the respondents participated in community–based association and engaged in both crop and livestock enterprises. Relatives and radio media are the prevalent modes of awareness on solar energy resource (SER). Willingness to adopt solar energy resource (SER) is categorized into rarely willing, willing and strongly willing by composite score and it was found that some of the respondents are willing to adopt SER. The study further exposed some of the challenges militating against farm households’ willingness to adopt solar energy resource (SER) and concluded that high cost of solar energy devices, weather effect on SER, risk of theft and vandalism, small size of farm holding among others were currently constraining willingness to adopt solar energy resource among the respondents. The result of ordered logit regression revealed that marital status, community-based association, solar cost price and annual farm income were significantly determined farm households’ willingness rate of adoption of SER in the study area. The analysis of willingness rate of SER adoption in the rural areas has important policy implications on inclusive local development, fuel subsidy removal, supporting farming activities, asset ownership patterns, and environmental protection and climate change actions. Therefore, the study concludes that SER is recognized as one of the emerging technologies for agricultural transformation and development. Hence, equipping farms with solar energy technology requires strengthening community-based association, security alerts, farm holdings expansion as well as subsidizing the installation cost of solar energy panels. It was recommended that the stakeholder and government policy interventions should support investment in SER for developing agricultural practices.

Also, adopting solar energy as a substitute for electrical energy from fuel and hydro power generation that is often erratic in energy supplying, is necessary to overcome the hardship of unexpected high cost of living in Nigeria, thus federal government should see this as a means of improving the standard of living of most citizens inclusive the less privileged. It is incumbent on government and other stakeholders to connect with the companies supplying solar technology panels to ensure continuity of use in the entire user communities and other communities. Finally, as part of social amenities or infrastructures for developing rural economic settings and world businesses productivity, this study therefore suggested that the extension workers as well as other educational institutions should prioritize people’s awareness and sound education about solar energy utilization.

Conflict of interest

This paper has been approved by the authors, and therefore it is declared that there is no conflict of interests.

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