Sopuruchi Onwuka

Africa’s leading gender equity advocate, the Women in Energy Network (WIEN), has called on investors, regulators, and policy leaders in the energy industry to recognize women professionals as credible and essential partners in securing Africa’s energy future.

Speaking during the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) session at the 2026 Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC) in Lagos, WIEN President, Mrs. Eyono Fatai-Williams, said full participation of women across the energy value chain strengthens community impact, expands technical capacity, and builds stronger leadership pipelines.

“The Women in Energy Network exists to support this vision by building confidence and competence, creating access to networks and opportunities, and supporting women across the entire energy value chain,” she said. She stressed that real progress requires more than goodwill. It demands clear targets, defined timelines, and accountability.

Calling for stronger collaboration across the industry, Mrs. Fatai-Williams noted that no single company or institution can solve the sector’s challenges alone.

“High-impact collaboration, shared training programmes, cross-company apprenticeships, and recognition of credentials across borders accelerate progress and enable scale,” she said. “When industry aligns, systems work better, faster, and more sustainably.”

She urged stakeholders to move from isolated initiatives to coordinated systems that deliver measurable results.

According to her, the future of Africa’s energy sector depends on a workforce that is skilled, diverse, adaptable, and proudly homegrown. She emphasized that the future of energy in Africa is inseparable from the future of its inclusive and diverse workforce.

In her keynote address on building a future-ready African energy workforce, Mrs. Fatai-Williams noted that rising energy demand, rapid population growth, and the accelerating global energy transition have made cumulative industry talent and innovation more critical than ever.

She warned that workforce gaps left unaddressed today will become operational risks tomorrow, affecting safety, productivity, project delivery, and long-term competitiveness.

Defining what “future-ready” means in the African context, she said people must come before technology. Digital tools, automation, and new energy systems all rely on human capability — engineers who design systems, technicians who maintain them, field teams who ensure safety, and community actors who enable projects to succeed.

A future-ready workforce, she explained, must be digitally literate, comfortable with data, and able to work across oil, gas, renewables, power, and emerging energy solutions. It must also be grounded in environmental awareness, safety competence, and a culture of continuous learning.

“Africa cannot import its future workforce. We must build it locally, deliberately, inclusively, and at scale,” she said.

While investment is increasing and energy systems are diversifying, she noted that Africa faces deep and persistent workforce gaps, worsened by gender imbalance in technical, operational, and leadership roles.

She pointed to unequal access to opportunities across regions and socio-economic backgrounds, weak school-to-industry pipelines, and graduates entering the job market without practical skills while employers struggle to find qualified talent. She also highlighted transition risks for workers in legacy roles who lack clear pathways for reskilling or redeployment.

“These gaps are not failures of individuals. They are system design failures,” she said. “If we do not address them intentionally, we risk building a future that is technologically advanced but socially exclusive and unsustainable.”

Mrs. Fatai-Williams stressed that diversity is not a side agenda but a strategic imperative. Diverse teams, she said, bring broader perspectives, strengthen problem-solving, and reduce operational blind spots — all critical in an industry where safety, efficiency, and innovation are non-negotiable.

She added that inclusion improves talent attraction and retention, strengthens community trust and social license, and enhances long-term competitiveness.

“When women and underrepresented groups are excluded, we are not just limiting opportunity. We are leaving talent, insight, and value untapped. That is a cost the African energy sector can no longer afford,” she said.

On strengthening the pipeline from education to employment, she urged the industry to begin engagement at the secondary school level, as well as in technical and vocational institutions, by creating visible and practical pathways into energy careers.

“We must move beyond theory to hands-on learning. Apprenticeships, internships, and supervised field exposure are essential to bridging the gap between education and employment,” she said.

She encouraged industry leaders to co-design training programmes with educators to ensure alignment with real workforce needs, noting that industry-supported training reduces onboarding costs, improves retention, and builds loyalty.

Addressing the impact of the energy transition, Mrs. Fatai-Williams said while jobs will change, the need for skilled professionals will not disappear. She called for structured reskilling of workers in legacy sectors and accelerated preparation of new talent in renewables, digital energy systems, energy efficiency, and carbon management.

She advocated for a just energy transition that protects livelihoods while creating new opportunities. Training, she added, must be modular, flexible, and aligned with evolving technologies so workers can transition without being displaced.

On leadership, she urged organizations to build environments where professionals can stay, grow, and lead.

“That means clear career pathways, both technical and leadership tracks, mentorship and sponsorship, and safe, respectful workplaces, particularly in field and operational roles,” she said.

Retention, she stressed, is as important as recruitment in closing workforce gaps and preserving institutional knowledge.

She called for visible and measurable leadership commitment through clear diversity and skills targets, regular progress tracking, and public reporting.

“What gets measured gets managed,” she noted.

Mrs. Fatai-Williams also urged governments to link local content and training outcomes to licensing and procurement processes, and to embed workforce development metrics into project financing and investment decisions.

Skills development, she concluded, must be treated as a core investment, not as an add-on to corporate social responsibility.