Energy security demands diversity of talent ___Olu Verheijen
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Africa’s quest for sustainable and affordable supply of energy must first address limitations in the diversity of female expertise in achieving the set target.
Thus, all human talents cutting across the gender divide must be harnessed in transforming traditional and new resources to closing deficits and promoting energy accessibility in the continent.
Presidential Adviser on Petroleum Resources, Mrs Olu Verheijen, declared at a continental policy debate in Cape Town, South Africa, that Africa has reached a point where energy access is critical in shaping the continent’s future.
“Our resources including renewables are abundant, yet over 75% of the population lack sufficient energy access.
“As a continent seeking to change this narrative, we must ensure that energy ceases to be the limiting factor in Africa but rather becomes a tool for driving industrialization and development.
“One of the ways we can address this is through a productive energy workforce,” she told delegates at the conference.
In analyzing issues on “The Future of Energy: Shaping the Workforce of Tomorrow,” Mrs Verheijen made it clear that the future would take incredible amounts of human energy and a diversity of talent and expertise “to enable us adapt to these rapidly evolving and often unpredictable scenarios and circumstances.”
“We are the ones who will determine the outcome of the delicate balance between energy security, affordability and sustainability for this continent,” she declared.
On one of the most important ways to shape African energy workforce, Mrs Verheijen called for integration of “a new crop of talent, especially women, and young people, who possess a global perspective and reach and understand the context of the 21st century, and are equipped with the fresh perspectives and bold energy to design and implement radical new solutions to lingering problems.”
She stressed that whereas efforts to attract women into STEM and the energy sector remain important, retention and advancement of female workforce to senior levels are equally crucial.
Mrs Verheijen who is a prominent member of the Women in Energy Network (WIEN) stressed that the real differentiator for women breaking through from mid-level to executive roles is sponsorship.
“Women need powerful advocates who actively support their growth and position them for opportunities and ensure their representation at the highest levels,” she said.
Mrs Verheijen cited her appointment into a cabinet-level position by President Bola Tinubu as a clear example of how Nigeria is taking gender equity, diversity and inclusion to policy implementation.
“It was and is a bold experiment in many ways – picking young, female and putting her in the space, and empowering her to be disruptive. The President could have picked a more traditional choice in the Nigerian context: male, older, more political, more government experience,” she explained.
“If you want to see different results, you need to do things differently,” Mrs Verheijen stressed.
According to her, President Tinubu’s choice of young female professional to lead his administration’s industry policy design stands as a symbol of sponsorship.
“This is about going beyond the usual lip service about inclusiveness and commitment to empowering women and young people, and my team do not take this privilege and opportunity for granted at all,” she declared to African delegates.
In pledging to invest herself in delivering full reform mandates of the president, Mrs Verheijen stated that “this is something that many more leaders on the African continent must do, going forward, and with a sense of urgency also.
“Sponsorship makes a great deal of difference. It is what has allowed male leaders to dominate many leadership positions in public and private sector in Africa today.”
In justifying the case for deliberate gender diversity in energy industry leadership, she argued that “it is not because women are less qualified, or less available, or less endowed with what it takes to lead at the highest levels. No. It is simply that men have simply come to enjoy the longstanding serendipity of being more likely to be sponsored into influential positions.
“It is that simple. And it is now time for women to enjoy equal access to this, to being bet upon, to being given more chances,” she stated.
