By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Board Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mrs. Margery Okadigbo, has demanded for the bridging of gender gaps in the energy industry.
She made this call while speaking at the Women in Energy Oil and Gas (WEOG) Conference of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) Women Commission, Kaduna Zone, which held on Wednesday at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Headquarters in Abuja.
Mrs. Okadigbo stated that the energy sector is one of the most gender-imbalanced sectors and that it is presently confronted like never before, with the urgent need to urge gender equity in the energy sector, given the statistics.
According to her, women account for only 30 percent of the labor force in the oil and gas industry and just 32 percent of the labor force in the renewable energy sector.
She further expressed concern over the gender imbalance in the energy sector and stressed that women hold less than five percent of top positions in the energy sector and fewer than 14 percent in the top management positions in energy-related businesses.
Okadigbo also lamented that the investment of women in energy technology and climate change technology is far less when compared to that of men. Against this backdrop, the management of PTDF promised members of WEOG that it would support them to attend conferences within and outside the country as they desire.
The Fund’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Aliyu Gusau, promised that, after discovering that women in energy have a high tendency of organizing workshops, which is part of the Fund’s mandate, the PTDF will always support all their activities.