Photo Caption Mrs Eyono Fatayi- Williams President, Women in Energy Network (WIEN)
WIEN holds 2nd IWD Career Fair for college girls in Port Harcourt
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Nigeria’s leading gender equity advocate, the Women in Energy Network (WIEN) on Tuesday rounded off its month long career mentorship and capacity building programme with the second phase of its International Women’s Day Career Fair in Port Harcourt.
The event follows earlier version of the programme hosted in Lagos where prominent members of WIEN adopted over 200 college girls for mentorship.
The Port Harcourt event titled “Career Talks For the Girl Child” focuses on the theme; “Empowering Dreams: Inspiring the Next Generation of Women Leaders.”
According to programme highlights published for members, WIEN stated that the theme of the event aligns with the global theme for the International Women’s Day (IWD): “Accelerate Action.” The group pointed out that its programmes for the IWD 2025 emphasize “the need to take continued bold, decisive steps toward gender disparity, particularly in the context of addressing persistent barriers and inequalities that remain.”
Executive Secretary, Engr Asanimo Omezi, stated that WIEN’s IWD Career Fair is designed to inspire and guide young girls toward exciting career opportunities in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). She noted that STEM education subsequently prepares the girls to feed skills and expertise into aviation, energy, and other industries.
It is still unclear how many girls would be adopted by the group in the Port Harcourt cohort of mentees and what facilities would be provided for them, but inside sources hinted that the second phase of the WIEN IWD Career Fair would mirror the first phase where mentees were guaranteed personalized guidance and internship opportunities.
According to WIEN, the mentorship programme assigns the students to real life coaches that would assist them through career choices. It also provides internship opportunities and field exposures to the students during holiday periods.
The WIEN IWD Career Fair is conceived to encourage female secondary school students pursuing STEM in Lagos and Port Harcourt to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day.
The Oracle Today reports that WIEN has been very strident in its call for gender equity in the leadership of government agencies and corporate organizations in the Nigerian energy industry, arguing vehemently that Nigerian women have demonstrated adequate capacity, professionalism and astuteness in discharging paltry leadership roles assigned to them.
The performance of the few women in the leadership energy, WIEN argues, demonstrates that gender imbalance in the industry is a product of primordial bias and not of fairness.
The group which is headed by Mrs Eyono Fatai-Williams is contending with arguments that women participation in industry leadership is limited by the very few qualified women with technical skills. And WIEN has since taken up the challenge of grooming and mentoring younger women in STEM education to build a pipeline of technical skills that would sustain the position of women in the energy industry.
Engr Omezi declared that WIEN adopted the entire month of March drive the theme of “Accelerating Actions.”
The Port Harcourt event which holds at Primary School Hall of the Community Secondary School, Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt; and WIEN encouraged its partners, members and stakeholders in education and industry sectors to participate.
“Join us as we engage young girls in STEM, equipping them with the knowledge and mentorship needed to thrive in the industry,” the group declared in public notice.
