The federal government has urged Nigerian women to leverage on opportunities available in the mining sector for their empowerment benefit.
The Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, made this known in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at the opening of a 2-day Women In Mining (WiMiN) summit in Abuja Wednesday.
Saraki who was represented by the Director of artisanal and small-scale mining, Patrick Ojeka, tasked women to always strive with personal efforts to invest in the exploration of minerals also in order to have reliable data.
“We should not forget that the government since 2018 has mainstreamed gender in its activities by making sure that its laws, policies, and programmes are not devoid of gender responsiveness.
“Gender mainstreaming has been embraced internationally as a strategy towards realizing gender equality. Our goal, therefore, is to ensure that both men and women have equal opportunities or benefits from the sector.
Nevertheless, government alone cannot do it; that is why the effort of Women in Mining in Nigeria must be applauded.”
Speaking also, the National President of WIMIN, Engr Janet Adeyemi, said that there was a need to synergise validation exercise to look at the challenges and the opportunities such as injustices in the system.
She said, the project has birthed the emergence of WiMiN state chapters; from Taraba in the northeast, Plateau in the north-central, Osun in the southwest, Ebonyi in the southeast and Edo in the south-south.
Adeyemi further stated that WiMiN was mainstreamed with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in 2017 as a recognised gender rights organisation in the mining sector and, currently, the ministry through its many diverse projects is repositioning women in mining as an elevated altitude in the mining sector.
“The project has strengthened our bonds and has become closely knitted by our various visits to each of the participating states. It is exciting to have you all in Abuja where we are going to share our various experiences of the challenges and opportunities, we have all experienced in our areas.”
