The following stories from Nigeria are extracts from the booklet 'Women in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Industry."
ESTHER BAMIWO FUNMILAYO
Educational background
I attended St John’s Anglican Primary School in Oba-Ile (Akure) between 1977 and 1983 and had 
my secondary school education at Ejioba High School in Oba-Ile between 1983 and 1990. I then went on to the government technical college in Owo (Ondo State) to study refrigeration and air-conditioning between 1991 and 1994, passing Federal Labour Trade Test 2 & 3 and the Federal Craft Training Certificate in 1994. I also passed Trade Test 1 in 1998. In my quest for further education, I took the National Examinations Council (NECO) examination in 2005 and the NABTEB (National Business and Technical Examinations Board) Ordinary Level examination in 2010, which then enabled me to obtain a National Diploma (ND) in Mechanical Engineering at Osun State College of Technology (Esa-Oke) in 2011, and because of my unquenchable passion for education, I further gained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in the same field, mechanical engineering (plant & maintenance), at the same college in 2014.
Motivation and reasons
My childhood ambition was to become a nurse or medical auxiliary because I love doing things that bring comfort to others, but the first admission that came my way was for technical college, and the initial course I wanted to put in for was electrical/electronics. When I got to the college I saw some students dressed in white coats, very tidy, and that reminded me of my medical ambitions; I also noticed that most of them had cars. I immediately enquired about them and was told they were students of the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Department. There were 65 students and only two of them were female. I was led to understand that their head of department was a woman, who had just returned from overseas, where she had been attending a seminar workshop. Then I decided to switch my course to study refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) and have never regretted it.
Incentives
The thing that most motivates me about the profession is how my fellow women tend to admire me whenever I am on duty installing and servicing air-conditioning units. Moreover, among the female colleagues with whom I graduated, I am the only one that has a workshop.
- “Working in the sector has brought me so many opportunities ... I’ve been able to meet people who have helped me positively and very resourcefully by adding value to my life and professional career.”
Refrigeration and air-conditioning services cut across so many areas: households, hospitals, railways, aeroplanes, plastics, ships, etc. This also motivates me about the profession.
There were five instructors all with blue aprons on the staff of the department, but I saw a woman wearing a white apron who happened to be their head, and all the other instructors accorded her respect as she was putting them through how some instrument was to be used (e.g. a psychrometer to measure the relative humidity of the atmosphere, an anemometer to read airflow, etc.).
Working in the sector has brought me so many opportunities; as a member of NARAP (Nigeria Association of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Practitioners) I’ve been able to meet people who have helped me positively and very resourcefully by adding value to my life and professional career.
- Working in the RAC sector has also helped me to further my education as well as sponsor and cater for my family.
- As a woman in the RAC sector, I feel so proud and honoured because other women give me respect and admire me.
Working experience
My first work experience was during my industrial training, which I did under the supervision of Engineer Akinsiku of Ondo State Radiovision Cooperation back in 1993, and our main fieldwork was at Stanmark Cocoa Processing Company Limited in Ondo (Ondo State), where we worked as contract staff in charge of the company’s refrigerators and air-conditioners; through my working time there, I was able to see industrial air-conditioners and chillers face to face. Our job then included servicing, repair and installation.
Also, immediately after finishing technical college, I did a two-year internship training programme at Bayak Technical Services and Oguntoyinbo’s technical company in Akure, where I was able to gain additional knowledge of installation and repair of refrigerators and air-conditioners.
At present I am working as a high-tech officer with the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment; my job description includes servicing, repair and installation of refrigerators and air-conditioners both domestic and industrial.
Challenges
The major challenge of any profession in Nigeria is power (electricity). Power failure has become a great threat to the RAC profession as it slows down the pace of work.
- The issue of fake and adulterated products and materials (e.g. refrigerants, pipes and oil, etc.) makes work a bit difficult.
- The lack of (in-house and external) training, capacity-building and workshops on new technologies also contributes greatly to the challenges facing the sector and profession at large.
- Unavailability of equipment, most of which is very expensive, also poses a great threat, while others may include fake equipment, which wears quickly.
- There is not much capital to purchase most of the work tools.
Suggestions
The following suggestions are my personal opinion and I feel would help the women and men in the RAC sector to perform well in the profession.
- The Nigeria Association of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Practitioners (NARAP) ought to organize periodic training for its members to upgrade their skills.
- Producer and international bodies in the RAC sector should give loans and grants to its members to support their work/businesses.
- Refrigerator and air-conditioner producers should organize seminars and workshops for RAC professionals whenever new products are produced.
- It’s also necessary for producers and NARAP to set up a committee that would check items sold on the market so as to flush out fake and adulterated materials.
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DR. CHARITY MAELEERA KPABEP
My career in refrigeration and air-conditioning began when I gained admission to the Federal Technical College Yaba in Lagos and subsequently passed the West African Examinations Council examination in (technical) refrigeration and air-conditioning in 1986.
I was employed by the Rivers State Government to teach refrigeration and air-conditioning theory, science and practical in the Government Technical College, Port Harcourt, from 1997 to 1989. In 1989, I gained admission to study mechanical technology, which embraced refrigeration and air-conditioning. After graduating, I was employed in 2004 by Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, to teach refrigeration and air-conditioning. During my employment here, I was given the opportunity to further my education. Hence I did an MSc in Industrial Education (Mechanical Option) and a PhD in Industrial Education (Mechanical Technology). From 2004 to the present I have been teaching refrigeration and air-conditioning at the polytechnic level.
I have supervised several student projects in refrigeration and air-conditioning, a few of which include design and fabrication of an ice block making machine, design and fabrication of a mobile cold room, design and fabrication of a fruit preservative refrigerator, and design and fabrication of a dual-powered refrigerator.
From 1996 to 2000 I also served as an external examiner in refrigeration and air-conditioning for the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB). My passion for refrigeration and air-conditioning motivated me to register as a maintenance contractor. Consequently, I was given the opportunity to maintain the oil movement central air-conditioner in the Port Harcourt Rewning Company at Alesa-Eleme on several occasions. I also maintained split and window air-conditioners for hotels. One of the repairs carried out at the Port Harcourt Rewning Company indicated that the unit was abandoned because of the level of contaminant in the system. However, because of my expertise, I was able to rehabilitate the central air-conditioner.
- “I have supervised several student projects ... which include design and fabrication of an ice block making machine, a mobile cold room, a fruit preservative refrigerator, and a dual-powered refrigerator.”
I participated in a good practices refrigeration workshop in 2006 and served as a member of the committee that compiled the Training Manual on Good Practices in Refrigeration. I also took part in a hydrocarbon refrigerant workshop and a recovery and recycling training workshop in 2007 and a hydrocarbon refrigerant technology workshop in 2013. All participants in the above workshop were drawn from polytechnics in Nigeria and were given training equipment for training refrigeration practitioners in Nigeria. This training lasted from 2009 to 2010. A total of 11,000 technicians were trained in the country. An assessment of training centres was conducted for quality of training and I won the Best Trainer Award in 2010.
I was motivated by that award and consequently wrote a proposal through my Rector in 2011 to the Environment Commissioner in Rivers State for the creation of recovery centres to enable the trained technicians in Rivers State to fully install, repair and commission refrigeration systems without emission of ozone-depleting refrigerants into the atmosphere. The result was that the Permanent Secretary of Rivers State Ministry of Environment requested that I should train the environmental inspectors in the Ministry of Environment. With the assistance of Rivers State Polytechnic (now Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori), I was able to train 35 inspectors who were expected to do a follow-up on the technicians when the proposed recovery centres had been established. Unfortunately, my dream of recovery centres was never realized.
