Funding, which is one of the key challenges that hinder participation of women in the oil and gas industry activities may have been put to rest as the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) partners NEXIM Bank to establish a $40 million Women in Energy Fund.
This is in addition to the $300million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCI Fund) which also provided a long term, single digit interest rate funding.
The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Simbi Wabote disclosed this during the Nigerian Women in Oil and Gas Conference 2022 in Lagos with the theme: Leveraging Opportunities for Women in the Oil and Gas Industry.
Wabote revealed that the Oil and Gas Industrial Parks in Bayelsa and Cross River states were getting ready for completion and would begin operation next year.
The industrial parks according to him had been developed as a low-cost manufacturing hub for equipment, component parts, spare parts, chemicals, consumables and other products.
He, therefore, encouraged women owned businesses with workable proposals to look out for the adverts in the newspapers and apply for allocation of plots to set up manufacturing outfits, adding that they would be given special consideration as part of commitment of the board to mainstream women into the oil and gas industry. The Executive Secretary appreciated the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for recognizing the board’s efforts to lead the womenfolk into the mainstream of the Nigerian oil and gas industry through the award given to the board as the “Best Gender Support Agency in the Energy Space” at the fifth Nigerian International Energy Summit early this year in Abuja.
He promised to keep the flag flying in the board’s effort to empower the women in the oil and gas industry.
“To all the female we promise to continuously leverage on your numbers to start a movement in the oil and gas industry. We cannot afford to leave behind half of our populace.
‘’We will leverage on your advocacy skills to influence policy direction, leverage on your intellect to deepen Nigerian Content, and leverage on your intuition to make the right judgment call when it matters most.
