By Adeniyi Onifade
With a view to empowering women in the oil and gas industry, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva has revealed that the federal government has, through the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) partnership, provided a 40-million-dollar funding for the women to explore.
Speaking as the special guest of honour in Lagos Tuesday, at the 2022 Nigerian Women in Oil and Gas Conference organised by the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum (NCCF) Diversity Sectoral Working Group (DSWG), Sylva pointed out that the funding is separate from the 300-million-dollar Nigerian Content Initiative (NCI) Fund, which is equally available to women (and men) who meet the criteria.
Themed “Leveraging Opportunities for Women in the Oil & Gas Industry”, the conference attracted creme dela creme of women in the industry.
In her goodwill message, chairperson of the conference, Senator Margery Chuba-Okadigbo who is also the chairman, Board of the NNPC Ltd, said that it was imperative for more women to participate in the oil and gas space because of its significant contribution to the economy.
She urged the leadership of the NCDMB to consider replicating the board’s Project 100 Companies by creating a model exclusively for women-owned Nigerian companies.
In his remark, the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote inferred that the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 had created several opportunities that could be leveraged to increase the participation of women in the sector.
Wabote said they included administration of the various Trusts and Funds contained in the Act, opportunities in National Gas Expansion Programme and the almost completed Industrial Parks in Bayelsa and Cross River.
Earlier in her welcome address, chairman of the NCCF Diversity SWG, Mrs Alero Onosode said the oil and gas industry was technical, capital intensive and of high risk, adding that women should leverage the opportunities by being always resilient and prepared.
…Read the full report by Valuechain’s Adeniyi Onifade who was live at the confab, in our June edition, already underway.