Underemployment: NEITI seeks more women participation in Nigeria’s mining sector

Onome Amuge

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), a leading advocate for transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s extractive sector, has issued a call for greater female representation in the country’s mining industry.

With an estimated 16 percent of the 8,693 employees in the sector being women, NEITI has underscored the urgent need to empower women to take their rightful place at the decision-making table within Nigeria’s extractive sector.

In a statement issued from Abuja, NEITI underscored the critical role of concerted efforts in dismantling the obstacles that hinder women’s inclusion in the country’s extractive sector.

Ogbonnaya Orji, the executive secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative , stressed the need for women’s inclusion in Nigeria’s mining sector in a keynote address delivered at the 6th Nkechi Isigwe Annual Lecture (NIAL), organised by the Association of Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria (APWEN) in Abuja.

 The NEITI executive secretary, who was represented by  Dieter Bassi, the director of Policy, Planning, and Strategy,  identified the urgent need for deliberate actions to foster gender equity in a sector long dominated by men.

“NEITI has placed special attention on gender equity and inclusion, particularly with a focus on women. Globally, the debate around women’s participation in the mining and steel sectors is gaining momentum. 

“A male-dominated industry characterised by limited access for women—whether in employment, training, investment, or decision-making—is unsustainable and counterproductive,” Orji stated.

Citing key employment data from NEITI’s 2022 and 2023 Oil and Gas Industry reports, Orji lamented that women continue to be underrepresented in the sector, constituting only 16 percent of the 8,693 employees in 2023, a decline from 17 percent in 2022.

Orji emphasised the persistent underrepresentation of women in Nigeria’s extractive industries, despite the overall growth in employment.

He stressed the need to address this inequity, stating that the low percentage of women in the sector is a glaring gap that must be bridged. 

To do this, he called on stakeholders to actively create avenues for women to participate in all aspects of the extractive industry value chain.

During the event, Nkechi Isigwe, a member of the NEITI National Stakeholders Working Group and founder of the annual lecture series, underscored the multitude of opportunities available for women in Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining sector, emphasising the pressing need for youth empowerment in light of the country’s youthful demographic.

In her remarks, Isigwe drew attention to the vast potential for women’s contributions in the extractive industries, particularly in light of the unique perspectives and skills that they bring to the table.