Leading indigenous energy company, Oando Energy Resources, has been named outstanding sponsor of the 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Women in Energy Network (WIEN).

The announcement came as WIEN hosts members and stakeholders in the energy industry to a Gala Night to mark five years of strident advocacy for gender equity in the Nigerian energy sector.

Director of Partnerships at WIEN, Bassey Adie, stated that Oando forms part of 20 indigenous and international companies identifying with WIEN as the group hosts its first DEI Awards and institute compliance benchmark for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the industry.

Oando is one of the nine Platinum Sponsors already supporting the event at which key industry captains, regulators, and policy drivers are expected.

Other Platinum Sponsors of the event include Renaissance, NLNG Limited, TELMEK, Waltersmith and Sahara Energy. Others are Seplat, Shell, and First E&P.

The event attracted significant seven Gold Sponsors, including
ND Western, Bank of Industry, Aradel, and Rainoil. The rest Gold Sponsors are Virgin Forest, Nexim, and ExconMobil.

Silver Sponsors of the event include Tetracore, Loyz, and Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).

Tenaris and Lonadek step in as Bronze Sponsors of the milestone event.

It would be recalled that WIEN recently reached partnership with KPMG to track gender gaps in the energy sector.

Consequently, WIEN and KPMG Advisory Services are now set to launch an annual DEI benchmark to track gender gaps in Nigeria’s energy sector and measure progress in women’s participation across the industry.

The report is expected to assess industry performance, identify gaps, and highlight opportunities for improvement across the energy value chain, using data gathered from industry players to establish a baseline for measuring future progress.

WIEN President, Eyono Fatayi-Williams, said the report would be published annually and provide evidence to support discussions on diversity and inclusion in the sector.

She said the involvement of KPMG would strengthen the credibility of the report and help position Nigeria as a reference point for data-driven reporting on inclusion in the energy industry.

Mrs Fatayi-Williams stated that the initiative would establish verifiable information rather than rhetorics.

Bassey Adie also said the report would assess the broader energy sector, with participating organisations expected to submit relevant data.

Adie noted that WIEN is engaging industry stakeholders to establish partnerships that will enable KPMG to access their systems and communicate with their personnel while gathering information for the report.

She explained that the assessment would focus on three areas, including women in leadership and careers, pathways for young girls through mentorship, internships and employment, and opportunities for women-owned businesses through supplier diversity programmes.

The collaboration also covers the vetting of nominees for WIEN’s industry awards and the development of directories of board-ready women and women-owned businesses.

WIEN emphasised that KPMG would help verify award nominees and assess their contributions to the energy industry to strengthen the credibility of the awards.

The awards have 14 categories and will recognise women and companies for their achievements and contributions to diversity and inclusion.

The proposed directory of women-owned businesses is intended to help organisations, government and the international community identify verified businesses, while the board-ready directory will improve the visibility of qualified women for board appointments.

WIEN said the directories would address concerns that organisations often struggled to find qualified women for board positions or identify women-owned businesses when seeking business partners.

According to Mrs Fatayi-Williams, WIEN has grown to more than 1,000 women and over 32 corporate organisations.

The network also conducts capacity-building activities, including webinars and masterclasses, and encourages young girls to consider careers in the energy industry.

The benchmark report will be unveiled at WIEN’s gala and awards night at the Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island, Lagos, under the theme, ‘Accelerating Inclusive Leadership for a Sustainable Energy Future’.