The Women in Energy Network (WIEN) has said that there is need for the Federal Government and private sector to allow more women hold prominent positions in oil and gas sector.
WIEN made the call when some of its members visited the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, in Abuja.
Led by the President, Funmi Ogbue and Vice President (Downstream & Midstream Oil and Gas), Amina Maina, the WIEN members said there is a serious need to close the Nigerian energy gap in order to quicken development in the sector.
“There is a need for a structured framework to be wholly adopted which WIEN has yielded itself to developing and implementing’’, Mrs Funmi Ogbue told the minister.
The team which also visited the Group Managing Director of NNPC said the visits were part of deliberate effort to align with the International Women’s Day activities for the month of March. Sylva in his response affirmed that women are at the core of the industry and such powerful associations as WIEN will boost and signal the growth of diversity and inclusion in the sector. He lauded the recent top management appointments and deployments undertaken by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation which featured several highly qualified women in the sector. The minister stated that he is a lifetime believer in the competency of women and affirmed his trust that constant improvement in capacity and competence will make inclusion sacrosanct.
He said he would push for the establishment of a women content board similar to the local content board that will work assiduously to emplace and encourage women’s participation in the oil and gas sector.
The visiting team which comprised of its Board of Trustees members, founding members, and core directors, later in a visit to NNPC GMD, Mele Kolo Kyari, acquainted the GMD of its activities stating that the NNPC remained an important institution to promoting women inclusion in the sector.
Kyari promised that NNPC as the number energy organisation in the country will continue to promote the elevation women to senior positions just like it is currently doing.
The GMD called on WIEN to carry along women in the NNPC as they would be critical to the furtherance of WIEN objectives.
WIEN was established in January 2020 to provide a platform for Women that work across the Energy Sector value chain; to network and build confidence and links to progress their careers or businesses.