International and continental experts have gathered yesterday in South Africa’s economic capital, Johannesburg, to kick off the Women in Energy Forum to increase leadership of women in the African energy space. 

Taking place on the sidelines of the 2015 Africa Energy Indaba, the one-day Forum provided a platform for women to network, share their knowledge, and discuss achievements for the advancement of women to leadership positions across all Energy sectors. 

“It is high time to empower women to leadership positions in the energy field in Africa and to tap in their valuable contributions, skills and competitive advantage to solve Africa’s huge challenges of energy shortage,” NEPAD Agency Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki said. “Energy is a very wide field and opens enormous job opportunities for women at all levels to show and use their talent, be it in traditional means of generating energy or renewable or gas and fuel,” Dr Mayaki said.

Dr Mayaki delivering the keynote address

He emphasised on the need to invest in sustainable energy to allow African countries, many of which have borne the brunt of climate change effects, to leapfrog the polluting conventional options of the past and embrace the cleaner energy solutions of the future.

The NEPAD Agency is working towards ensuring gender equality in Africa through mainstreaming gender into all NEPAD programmes and projects, including its Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). 

Participants at the forum

The NEPAD Agency, through PIDA, aims to achieve 80 % of energy access for households and 90% for commerce and Industry by 2040. PIDA’s high priority energy projects to be implemented by 2020 include nine generation energy projects which are all clean sources and will add about 15,000 MegaWatt to regional networks and four regional transmission corridors.  The outcomes and recommendations of the Forum will feed into an implementation strategy that will mainstream gender issues at national, regional and continental levels.

South African Deputy Minister of Energy, Ms Thembisile Majola

Speaking during the opening, South African Deputy Minister of Energy, Ms Thembisile Majola, emphasised on the important role the African energy sector can play in the empowerment of women. “It can open doors to better health care, education as well as entrepreneurial opportunities for women. Access to energy is essential to unleashing the true potential of women,” Minister Majola said.

The conference is timely as it ties in with the African Union Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063. The NEPAD Agency as the technical arm of the AU and main supporter of the Africa Energy Indaba emphasised that women and youth are the greatest asset for Africa and have a large role to play in the development of sustainable projects that add to the economic development on the African continent.