Energy industry women demand quick fixes to operating environment

• Point at rising insecurity, gender inequity

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Leading women professionals and investors in the Nigerian energy industry have called on the government to quickly address security and regulatory issues holding down business in the domestic operating environment.

The women who spoke at a colloquium hosted by the Centre for Values in Leadership in Victoria Island, Lagos, also demanded a policy action that permanently closes gender gaps in the leadership of energy industry in Nigeria.

The calls formed the nucleus of conclusions reached by a panel of policy discussants at the event where three members of the Women In Energy Network (WIEN) were honoured for exceptions feats in their different roles and careers in the energy industry.

The panel of eight discussants noted that women led businesses in the country hold greater corporate responsibility in terms of policy compliance, financial and accountability integrity, leadership transparency, less controversies and higher returns on investment.

The honourees including the Acting Managing Director of Neconde Energy, Mrs Chichi Emenike; the Chief Executive Officer of Elint Systems Limited, Engr Charlotte Essiet; and Chief Executive Officer of 3Streams Synergy Limited, Ms Adedoyin Adelabu, were also discussants at the panel session.

While the indices of exceptional performance shine in the financial services industry where female managing directors have groomed their banks to international recognition for high profile transaction, the energy industry still shows low cases of female leadership in corporations and government agencies.

In attributing the successes in the banking industry to deliberate policies by the regulator to dismantle gender bias in migration of middle level managers into leadership positions, the colloquium called on regulators in the energy industry enact and diligently implement policies for gender parity in the sector.

Chairman of the panel, Mrs Joy Shaiyen, made it clear that whereas it is established that women led businesses do better, no agency of government has taken the responsibility to address gender inequity in the leadership of the energy industry.

Mrs Shaiyen who is also the National Coordinator of Women in LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) called on the industry regulators to develop a pipeline that consistently feeds senior management roles with proven and abundant female capacity.

Public affairs analyst, Dr Anthony Kila, who moderated the session, noted that success of enterprises in a society currently depends on the level of diversity and inclusion. He expressed worry that new set of leaders required to salvage the Nigerian economy from the current predicament are being excluded from participation.

He called on younger generation of Nigerians to see great value in gender diversity, pointing out that women who deter women are also victims who are still held down by culture. He noted that the current digital society is beginning to dismantle the subjective thoughts that play down the potentials of women.

In focusing on the deplorable state of the Nigerian energy industry, the panel noted the uncongenial policy, fiscal and regulatory environment as the main cause of enterprise attrition.

Ms Chichi Emenike pointed out that poor ease of doing business in the country is compounded by frightening rate of policy changes, overregulation by multiplicity of revenue targeting agencies, and worsening insecurity in the male dominated operating environment.

She pointed out that the worsening ease of doing business in Nigeria is forcing investors to divest from the country and divert recovered capital to safer and more rewarding fiscal jurisdictions.

The Oracle Today reports that Nigeria’s traditional partners in the petroleum industry, including Shell, ExxonMobil, Eni, Equinor, and ConocoPhillips have either pulled out their investments from Nigeria or scaling down their business portfolios in the country.

“Capital goes to safer and more rewarding places,” Mrs Emenike told the colloquium, adding that security has become one of the biggest cost drivers in the domestic business environment. She pointed at men as the crime agents.

Mrs Emenike also noted that investors now focus on persons that deliver on corporate goals instead of gender. She called on government to adopt similar processes in choosing industry leaders.

In addressing funding squeeze affecting the industry, Engr Charlotte Essiet told the colloquium that mastery of financing dynamics has become critical success factor in the face of stringent funding crunch affecting private players in the fossil industry.

She warned the audience that Nigerian banks have become risk averse to new petroleum projects, and advised them to explore creative financing options that are still open to players in the carbon market.

In pointing out that funding in the industry is only open to bankable projects, Engr Essiet advised investors to explore a number of government facilitated financing instruments provided in the Petroleum Industry Act, the African Energy Bank and remaining international windows for funding new energy.