Opeoluwa Akintayo

Knowing that many female reporters shy away from the technicalities of the extractives, Opeoluwa Akintayo of Sweetcrude Reports Media Limited organised a one-day training on energy beat reporting for thirty-four female journalism students at the Nigerian Institute of journalism (NIJ). Her intention was to bridge the gender gap in energy beat reporting. Opeoluwa Akintayo, who is the only female reporter at the Lagos branch of her organisation, noted that the leadership project eroded her fears and gave her the needed exposure and platform for future speaking engagements. She said the fellowship has also encouraged her to mainstream gender and feature more women in her reports. To sustain the outputs of her intervention, Opeoluwa created a Whatsapp learning and sharing group named Press Ladies.

For her story project, Opeoluwa conducted an interview with one of the few leading females in the Oil and Gas sector, Dr Ibilola Amao, the CEO and Principal Consultant of Lonadek Oil & Gas Limited. She was drawn to doing the story because not many females are found in the industry leading and at the same time running fantastic homes. Dr Amao’s ability to keep all of these going was worth celebrating, and the story worth telling. The story brought to the fore a lot of gender issues affecting women in the oil and gas industry and generally. The unavailability of mentors, discrimination against women in the sector, girls shying away from technical subjects and lack of support from spouses, were some of the issues identified.