In a Nigerian border town, a solar vaccine fridge is changing lives

Mothers in energy-poor Ipokia, a town in Ogun State, used to travel long distances to give their children immunisation. Solar-powered refrigeration has changed the game.

  • 28 January 2025
  • 5 min read
  • by Jesusegun Alagbe
Ipokia Local Government Secretariat, where the Primary Health Centre is located. Credit: Jesusegun Alagbe
Ipokia Local Government Secretariat, where the Primary Health Centre is located. Credit: Jesusegun Alagbe
 

 

One day in early January, the weather was scorching, and the earth all but sizzled. But the reverse was the case for the vaccines stored inside a solar-powered refrigerator at the Primary Health Centre in Ipokia, a sleepy town in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria.

With a population of around 150,000, Ipokia lies about 122 kilometres away from Abeokuta, the state capital, and just a hop over the border from Porto-Novo in neighbouring Benin. It takes just moments to spot that Ipokia is an energy-poor town. The shops are quiet, unlike those in major towns that blast music from speakers at every corner, and phone recharge kiosks, at which people queue and pay money to juice up their devices, are common.

“The solar vaccine fridges in the Primary Health Centre have been very useful because we don’t have access to electricity in this town. One of my visions for Ipokia is to improve its primary healthcare services and ensure all preventable diseases are eliminated through exercises like immunisation.”

- Johnson Avoseh, the chairman of Ipokia Local Government Area
Johnson Avoseh, Chairman of Ipokia Local Government Area, says solar-powered fridges have been useful since there's no access to grid electricity. Credit: Jesusegun Alagbe
Johnson Avoseh, the chairman of Ipokia Local Government Area.
Credit: Jesusegun Alagbe

Health care burnout

Being cut off from the electricity grid made it extremely difficult to maintain vaccines at the required temperatures in the past, say local health workers. That led to many Ipokia children missing out on the opportunity to be protected against vaccine-preventable disease.

Even though the local government office, where the health facility is located, had a generator, it could not reliably power the vaccine refrigerators. To make matters worse, fuel is sold at very high rates compared to the prices in the cities, due to the long distance from the port.

Inflated fuel prices mean that many residents and businesses – as well as the health centre – couldn’t easily access and afford the fuel needed to power their vehicles and generators.

Oluwaseun Alabi, a trader and mother of three, said because of the situation at Ipokia Health Centre, she would often be obliged to travel some 110 kilometres to the General Hospital at Badagry, a coastal town in neighbouring Lagos State, for care.

“I have relatives in Badagry, so whenever my children needed to be vaccinated, I would travel a day ahead to stay with my people. The following day, I would take them to the hospital and then return to Ipokia the next day. So I would spend about three days giving my children immunisation. I could make the sacrifice because I knew of the importance of vaccination,” she said.

Unlike Alabi, many mothers couldn’t simply afford the luxury.

The life-saver

However, respite came in 2016, when the Ogun State Government received 45 solar refrigerators from the European Union Support Immunisation Governance in Nigeria (EU-SIGN). The items were later distributed to the primary health centres in the state, including the one in Ipokia.

Since the installation of the solar vaccine refrigerator, cases of mothers travelling long distances for jabs, and of children missing out on routine immunisation locally, have receded.

“Our vaccine refrigerators were previously powered by the grid, and this often caused disruptions. Frequent power outages made it difficult to consistently maintain the required temperatures for vaccine storage. There were usually vaccine stock-outs, and sometimes, mothers who brought their children for immunisation would be asked to return home and come another day because of the absence of vaccines. Some never showed up again,” a local health worker who preferred not to be publicly identified told VaccinesWork.

“But, since the installation of the solar refrigerators, our vaccine storage capacity has increased, and this has tremendously led to less vaccine stock-out and boosted immunisation coverage. The development boosted the government’s resolve to bring services closer to the local population. Mothers no longer have to travel long distances to access immunisation services. They are motivated to bring their children for immunisation,” the worker said.

The worker said part of their job entails maintaining the cold chain and ensuring that the fridge’s temperature remains between 2°C and 8°C to preserve the vaccines inside.

According to Johnson Avoseh, the chairman of Ipokia Local Government Area, the solar-powered refrigerators are also contributing to vaccine availability – not just for Ipokia, but also for the 30 other health centres spread across the 12 wards in the local government area.

“The solar vaccine fridges in the Primary Health Centre have been very useful because we don’t have access to electricity in this town. One of my visions for Ipokia is to improve its primary healthcare services and ensure all preventable diseases are eliminated through exercises like immunisation.

“So, we have structures in place for children immunisation, which is done here at the local government headquarters where the vaccines are stored. We also encourage our pregnant women to attend antenatal programmes and bring their children for vaccination when they give birth,” Avoseh said.

Need for upgrade

Meanwhile, Avoseh said he noticed that the solar refrigerators need upgrading and repairs to continue to serve Ipokia and other villages.

“We need more investments to upgrade the solar panels because there are times when solar panels refuse to charge, perhaps because they are weak or when the weather is not too friendly to charge them.

“But we have a partnership with a lab in the community where we keep the vaccines when our fridges tend to misbehave. The lab’s vaccine fridge is also run on solar energy,” he said.

Embracing solar energy in cold chain

Moses Olutoye, a professor of renewable energy at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, in Nigeria’s north-central region, said the use of solar-powered equipment like the solar vaccine fridge can help fight climate change and at the same time improve access to life-saving vaccines.

“Solar energy is abundant and is waiting to be tapped in Nigeria, whether for individual, household, or industrial use. The power source is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than grid electricity. Innovations like solar-powered vaccine fridges can help fight climate change and also boost access to life-saving vaccines,” he said.

Asserting the importance of immunisation, Dr Kunle Ashimi, the chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Ogun State, said: “Immunisation is the most cost-effective way of saving the lives of our children. When children don’t have access to vaccines, it affects their future. To avoid this, we must continue to encourage immunisation, and any innovation that boosts it must be praised.”