News:
October 30, 2019
As part of measures to bridge the dominance of male in the energy sector in West Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is giving opportunity to six Women to participate in the African investment forum in South Africa next month.
According to the Coordinator of ECOWAS on Gender Mainstreaming in the energy sector with ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), Monica Maduekwe, last year was a huge success.
She said in an interview that Women in the West African sub-region who would want to venture in energy business on a larger scale, would be taken to where the capital is so that they can tap into it.
In addition, ahead of March 2020 energy forum being organized by the United Arab Emirate (UAE) to gather investors and prepare them to pump funds into the energy sector in West Africa, Monica Maduekwe pointed out that women would be taken along to get investors ready to sponsor projects in the sector.
“Since ECREEE started its program, a lot of women had gone into more ambitious business in the energy sector. Formerly you turn to see women in smaller business in the sector what their own money can do for them”.
The Coordinator at ECREEE noted that the process has been a learning one for them to understand why women hold back from going for a large scale projects in the energy sector, “we are helping them to break that barrier, that kind of fear not wanting to commit themselves to projects that require huge amount of investment and getting access to capital”.
She underscored the need for more women to run more ambitious business but noted that there are some kind of restrain since the sector is new to women. “You need a good amount of equity, we have had women who are shy to branch to more capital businesses”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com