WIMIN move to promote mining through school girls in Taraba

The Women in Mining on Monday flag off a mining training program for school girls in Taraba to promote and build a solid future in the mining sector.

Engr. Janet Adeyemi, the program national president who was represented by Mrs. Ifeoma Aghaebita the program national coordinator told participants at the event that, the idea was to build minig capacity in the school girls and groom them to be potential miners and solidify the future of the mining sector.

Adeyemi noted that the idea became necessary due to numerous opportunities, the prospects in the mining sector, as 70-80 percent of Nigerians daily Iives usage were products of mining like, gold and metals on the mobile phones, the glass and bulbs and many more which she believed the industry can never be replaced or displaced.

“This program mark the beginning of the Girls to Mining (GM), Initiative in Taraba State. I am emphasizing this because we are creating a landmark history for incoming generations in the mining sector that even when our generation is no more, the G4M will remain, and thousands of you school girls would be accomplished with high profile women in mining.

“The opportunities, the prospects in the mining sector which 70-80 percent of everything we
use in our daily Iives are products of mining, from our homes.

“Today, Nigeria is dependent on crude oil as its major source of wealth, however, the
World does not want crude oil anymore. Now they want solar energy, hydro-power
and other sources of power that are not oil. So at this time, we are witnessing the gradual passing away of the oil and gas sector in the globe and when it finally fades out, Nigeria will be left with only two means of wealth creation which are, Mining and Agriculture.

“The Mining sector will soon become more wealthy and prosperous than the Oil and Gas sector ever was in Nigeria. So when I had this foresight of the mining sector in Nigeria, what I saw was a blissful and rich future for the mining sector, but the question I ask myself is, when the sector finally takes the front seat, who will be left in it, calling the shots and milking the benetits?

“When l look at statistics of all the mainstream miners in Nigeria today, only 6.8 percent are Women, the remaining 949 percent are men. So, the women in the mining sector today are a drop out of an ocean, and the few women in the sector are being edged out of the game by gender blind laws.

“The number of women in the sector will keep dropping if we do nothing to pump female miners into the sector as the women on ground today will all be gone someday.

“The only way to meaningfully populate the mining sector of today with productive women is to begin to guide our girls from their school age into a prosperous future in the mining sector” The national president noted.

In their responses, Miss Abigail Chidinma Udeani, Jacitha Joseph and Sakinat Suleiman Banana both expressed joy as they were already considering exploring the field through its numerous opportunities.

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