The oil and gas industry is still overwhelmingly male, with
surveys showing that the executive boardrooms of petroleum
companies are mostly a boys' club.
In Nigeria, a number of well-financed businesswomen are
aiming to change the picture there. The Petroleum Minister
Diezani Alison-Madueke is a powerful figurehead for them.
"The fact that two of the biggest cabinet positions in Nigeria,
petroleum and finance, are held by women, show how far we
have come," she told a recent meeting in Vienna, referring to
the other prominent female member of the cabinet - Finance
Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
"We are there not because we are women. We are there
because of our competence as managers."
Yet as surveys make clear, women managers are still in the
minority in the world's oil and gas companies. Laura Manson-
Smith, a consulting partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, says
the representation picture is dismal.
"I was surprised at how low the percentage of female directors
was [in oil and gas firms around the globe] - 11%, most of
them are in non-executive positions, 1% of executive board
seats are held by women."
"'People trust women more," says Ladol's Amy Jadesimi
Offshore drilling
Nigeria, the world's 14th-largest oil producing country with 2.4
million barrels a day, has taken steps to open up its oil
industry to locals, a policy known as "indigenisation."
Now a handful of female entrepreneurs are hoping to build on
that, by increasing women's stake in the industry.
"When we were growing up we only had Margaret Thatcher,"
says Amy Jadesimi, the managing director of Ladol, a
petroleum services company based in Lagos.
Dr Jadesimi, a thirty-something former Goldman Sachs
analyst, medical doctor and MBA says that today, "woman are
taking for granted, that of course a woman can reach the
highest levels of society".
Ladol has turned a site reclaimed from a swamp and an
industrial wasteland into a $500m (£300m) port facility to
support offshore drilling operations, including ship repair,
maintenance, engineering and construction.
It is planning a second phase of expansion that will take the
investment to $1bn. "Nobody had done what we'd done before
across the whole of West Africa," says Dr Jadesimi.
Catherine Uju Ifejika is chairman and chief executive of the
Britannia U Group, a group of oil and gas companies. Her
business bought a stake in a major oil and gas field, Ajapa.
The reserves, according to Britannia, are worth $4.3bn.
"You men, you don't even know how to boil water or where the
children's school uniforms are," she jokes.
"We are able to hold your homes together, and we are
beginning to translate that into boardroom jobs, and then
owning companies. In six years I have formed seven
companies."
She says 70% of her staff are men, "and they're not used to
having a woman as a chairman or chief executive - a woman,
a black woman, a black African woman."
Ladol plans to invest up to $1bn developing port facilities in
Lagos
Thinking big
Oil accounts for 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange revenues.
And though it supplies only 15% of the country's GDP ($522bn)
it is the most symbolic industry.
Winihin Ayuli-Jemide, a Lagos-based entrepreneur and former
lawyer, is a leading advocate of research on women in
business and government.
She argues that one of the reasons South Africa was the
dominant economy in Africa for so long is that South African
women have been deeply involved in businesses of all sizes.
"They dominate the low capital businesses, the 'informal
sector' such as manufacturing knitwear, tie and dye and
homemade food for sale in municipal markets."
"At the level of small to medium enterprises, they're well
ingrained and established."
She wants Nigerian women to think bigger - and to investment
in areas such as oil and gas.
"When I was working for a large investment company in the
City of London, the other woman on the board was the human
resources director," said Jennie Paterson, founder of the
financial consulting firm Fraser Whitley.
"I think we need to encourage women to have a broader
executive skillset."
Oil accounts for 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange revenues
Women 'are trusted more'
Yewande Sadiku is chief executive of the Lagos-based
financing firm Stanbic IBTC Capital. She says that the lenders
providing loans to Nigerian and other African women too often
had a limited outlook.
They only think women are good customers for micro-finance
loans, she argues.
"[This mentality] says, let's give them lots of small loans,
50,000 to 100,000 naira, ($300 to $700), so they can run
small businesses and feed their families," she says.
"Raising funds is difficult, but to be honest, people trust
women more," Amy Jadesimi laughs.
"You have to have a watertight proposal, make a good
financing case and be confident in your pitch."
A series of studies by McKinsey titled Women Matter, found
that companies with a higher proportion of female executives
showed stronger financial performance than those with no
women in top positions.
The study showed that women tended to apply certain
"leadership behaviours" more than men. They included people
development, setting expectations and rewards and acting as
role models.
Winihin Ayuli-Jemide welcomes these studies. "In Africa we
really don't have information about gender issues", she said.
"Nothing on how we are doing in the economy."
"In oil and gas, women are emerging. There is a business case
for it."
source: bbc.com/news/business-29127436#

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