Centre LSD seeks more women participation in extractive industry

African Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development(Centre LSD) has said there is a need for more women to actively involve in all layers of extractive industry to boost the economy and guarantee sustainable development.

The centre also urged the federal government to regulate the mining sector to checkmate the activities of illegal miners in the country, saying that illegal miners are constituting serious impediments to the fight against insecurity and contributing immensely to the environmental hazards across the nation.

The centre’s Executive Director, Mr Monday Osasah said these in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Wednesday, during a workshop tagged, ‘Ekiti State stakeholders’ Interface on Gender and Natural Resources Management.

Osasah said the interface, organised by the Centre in partnership with the Ford Foundation, was designed to strengthen the extractive industry, by creating opportunities for women in the sector, saying, political, economical and cultural barriers are slimming their access to opportunities in the business.

He said: “When the government is planning for security, it must plan for how to deal with the menace of illegal miners because they too could scare people from the mining business.

“Illegal miners are posing security and environmental threats to our communities. They are sabotaging our economy, thereby making both government and the host communities lose the gains they are to derive from the industry.”

On how best to empower women with the financial muscle to fund the highly capital intensive investment in the sector, the executive director said the Public-Private Partnership initiative in the industry has broken the barriers for female gender to have access to money for a lifetime investment in the sector.

“Apart from fact that private financial institutions are financing businesses in the sector, the FG has rolled out funds and had created warehouses across the country and such opportunity should be latched upon by our women because they can easily access money through tenders,” he added.

In her lecture on ‘Gender and Extractive Sector’, Mrs Betty Ekanem, regretted that there was gender inequality that needed to be bridged in the mining sector, to the main balancing in the extractive industry management.

Another resource person, Dr Umesi Emenike identified the challenges in the industry to include geoscience factors, lack of fiscal framework, skills and capability constraints, calling on the stakeholders to work together in ensuring the advancement of the mining sector.

Also, a first-class monarch and Ajero of Ijero Ekiti, Ijero local government area of Ekiti State, Oba Joseph Adewole, said the preponderance of illegal mining around his community has degraded the environment and constituting security hazard to his people.

“My kingdom is where mining is taking place in Ekiti. We have a lot of strangers coming in, but they don’t have enough and appropriate equipment to do the mining. They dug the land anyhow and our land is degraded and destroyed. No farming can be done, no building can be constructed in those mining sites again,” he said.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Centre LSD seeks more women participation in extractive industry

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.    Centre LSD seeks more women participation in extractive industry