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• Keynote Speech delivered by MD/CEO, Heirs Oil & Gas, Osayande Igiehon  at the Launch of the SheEngineer 30% club by the Association of Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria (APWEN)
  

I am honoured to be invited by APWEN to speak on the topic – “Integration and Implementation of Gender-Sensitive Policies in the Workplace”

Gender inclusion is a topic of great importance; it has become clear that its not just  a moral imperative, it is, also a key factor for achieving sustainable development.

On a personal level, I must say that I have had the pleasure of working and collaborating with women and women engineers in particular, as seniors, colleagues and mentees over the years. From a vantage position, I have witnessed numerous instances of unparalleled excellence, outstanding achievement and game changing leadership being demonstrated by women.

That is why I gladly accepted the invitation when offered and I do sincerely hope that the insights and perspectives on the topic of today’s event will further trigger the needed response in us as individuals and our various organisations to be promoters and catalysts for the needed change.

So, what is Gender Inclusion and what is it not?

A simple question, but very weighty, given that the actions and reactions to the term and principles of gender equality, stems from the understanding and/or misunderstanding of what it is and what it aims to achieve.

Classically, gender inclusion is about being deliberate to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, has equal access to resources, opportunities, and benefits.

There is however a lot of misconception about what gender inclusion means – some believe, wrongly I must say, that it’s about female entitlement. I think it’s much broader than this, I think it’s more about giving the same opportunity, latitude, support and recognition to females, as any man would want to be given. Colloquially, it’s epitomised by the adage “treat others as you would want to be treated”, where in this case, it’s “treat women the way you want to be treated’.

From a private sector perspective, is there really a Business Case for Gender Inclusion?

There are several studies, examples and business leaders reflections that have demonstrated a strong business case for gender inclusion with win-win possibilities for all parties involved.

One of these studies, a 2021 study by Mckinsey, found that equal involvement of women in the workplace contributes to meaningful returns on investment and is associated with Organizational Performance and Profitability.

1. The study also established with empirical evidence that companies with strong gender inclusion have improved employee satisfaction and reduced employee turnover and absenteeism.
2. The study further established that such companies with strong gender inclusion also have enhanced Organisational Reputation and Ability to Attract Talent and Retain Employees.
3. The study also affirms that systemic exclusion of women from the workforce leads to inefficient economies, unequal growth, and missed opportunities for development at industry, national and global levels.

With the plethora of consistent feedback that continues to solidify and amplify the business value add from gender inclusion, it’s is no surprise that this is now a significant momentum for this objective globally, across various strata of society and across various sectors of endeavour.

In the business world, several companies have either adopted gender-sensitive corporate policies, which is essentially the entry point, or advanced in this journey to the point of integrating gender inclusion into their overall business strategy.

What are the top-line policy considerations for gender sensitivity?

To be impactful as an organisation in gender sensitivity and equality, policy must cover and specifically address the issues relating to the the natural and social experience of women and girls, with an overall view to enhance the chance of potential attainment for females. Maturity in this journey would see standalone policies, but policies that are integrated into HR processes and the company’s Code of Business Conduct.

The key thrust of these policies would aim to:

• To definitively attract, recruit, retain, mentor, coach, sponsor and promote female staff and talent.
• Provide sufficient time for maternity leave to help women recover physically and mentally from pregnancy and childbirth, while also adjusting to a “new normal”, before returning to their jobs
• Policies that protect female staff well-being and mental health.

How are we doing it at HeirsHoldings Oil & Gas (HHOG)?

The Heirs Holdings Group to which HHOG belongs, has a strong reputation in gender inclusivity.  We have over 45% of female representation at the Group Leadership level.

In HHOG, despite operating in a male-dominated industry, we have a 40% female representation in leadership, and we see an appreciable representation of females across all cadres of the company, both technical and non-technical cadres – in both office and field-based positions.

In the engineering space in Nigeria, gender diversity has been a long-standing challenge, with women being underrepresented in this field. I recall my electrical engineering class of 1992 at University of Benin, where we had only one female in a cohort of ca. 30.

30 years later, the demography has improved definitively and is still improving, with more females studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) courses and Engineering in particular. At HHOG, we are quite pleased that at our first graduate intake of 2022, we achieved a 50% female representation in technical disciplines.

In HH group and HHOG, we recognise that having a diverse workforce leads to better decision-making, increased innovation, and improved financial performance. Therefore, we know it’s in our best interest to create a workplace that is welcoming to everyone, regardless of gender. To achieve this goal, we have developed and implemented several gender-sensitive policies in our workplace. These policies include:

• Gender-Neutral Hiring Practices: Our recruitment process is designed to ensure that we hire the best candidates, irrespective of gender. This includes the use of gender-neutral language in job postings.
• Gender Pay Equity: We believe in paying our employees based on their skills, experience, and performance, regardless of their gender.
• Family-Friendly Policies: We understand that employees of both genders have personal lives and responsibilities outside of work and have policies in place to support this. Examples include our Parental Leave (applicable to mothers and fathers).

These policies are just a few examples of the steps we have taken to promote gender diversity and inclusion in our workplace. While we recognize that there is still more work to be done, we are committed to creating a workplace where everyone, especially our female colleagues, feel valued, respected, and empowered to succeed.

At HHOG, ours is a journey of continuous improvement, policies are the bedrock, but culture and leadership are the real determinants of success. The right behaviour and culture needs to be championed by leaders at all levels to ensure adequate traction is gained and desired outcomes achieved.

Everyone has a role in this and its starts with us as individuals:

Companies and policies don’t make themselves, they are made by humans; hence there is a need to work on ourselves, especially those in positions of leadership, to set the necessary foundation and context to believe in gender inclusion, and with this belief, the needed actions to ensure this principle is established across all strata of life and sectors of human endeavour will crystallise.

Accordingly, every one of us, especially if one is a leader, need to educate ourselves on the subject, need to become our “sister’s keeper” not just in words but in behaviours and in deeds, need to build ourselves to become allies for gender inclusion and lead by example on this subject.

In conclusion:

I thank APWEN for affording us all a great avenue to dialogue and become more educated on this change journey of gender inclusion.

As HHOG, as CEO of HHOG, and a key player in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, we will continue to champion gender inclusion, especially in the technical fields, stemming from benefits derivable and not just to achieve industry or societal correctness.

On a personal level, I would like to enjoin us all, to do more to promote gender inclusion and gender sensitive policies in the workplace. In our lifetime this “movement” can be the covert legacy we leave for our children, creating a world where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.

Thank you for listening.

• Speech delivered by MD/CEO, Heirs Oil & Gas, Osayande Igiehon  at the 2022 Association of Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria (APWEN) Conference 

Introduction

Thank you for this opportunity to share with distinguished colleagues, friends, sisters, APWEN and the rest of us who are here to support them in this 2022 conference.

Please permit me to stand on all existing protocols and I will move on to the topical issue, “Just Energy Transition and how to make it enable the development of Nigeria”.

I find it to be a subject steeped in a lot of complexities, so I will try and deconstruct them so a layman in the street can understand what the energy Transition is about.

We will be talking about the following

1. A Just Energy Transition: why it should be a just energy transition, the part that is not commonly said about it.
2. The Nigerian energy transition plan
3. What we think are the imperatives to ensure Nigeria can win.
4. What Heirs Holding is doing within this space from a strategic point.

A Just Energy Transition

When we look at energy transition, there is the talk that you go from fossil fuels to renewables which is quite commendable, but we need to look at it on several different levels. Currently, we have an energy system that is carbon-intensive and by the second half of this decade, we should have an energy system that is carbon neutral or “no carbon at all”. The implication of “No Carbon” is “No Hydrocarbon” because hydrocarbon, as we know it today, is the base of the economy. So, in this energy transition conversation, we need to think about ourselves in the conversation.

The second thing to think about is the future today, most of the energy consumed is in the form of petroleum products. Whenever I am in my house, I am consuming power majorly from gas, when I drive my car, I buy petrol and use diesel in my generator. It is an energy system that is dominated by fossil fuels.

It is anticipated that in the second half of the decade we are building a system that will shift major energy consumption from electricity instead of petroleum, for example, fuelling cars will be done using electricity. This is the essential conversation about the energy transition.

Where we have a system that is dominated by electricity, we need to ask ourselves “What will be the source of the electricity?”. This is where the conversation becomes critical to move away completely from hydrocarbons to renewable sources.

Having said that and juxtaposing it with the realities of the world where the population is projected to go about 9 billion, the energy demand is only going to increase. Bringing it home to Nigeria and Africa, we talk about energy adequacy which numbers abound, but we do not know it enough. Some analyses have it at 80% and some 65% energy poverty… the bottom line is that a list of countries in Africa do not have enough energy, we are substantially short of energy which is the key piece to underpin the whole energy transition conversation.

When we talk about energy transition, we need to begin translating that conversation from a European perspective to an African perspective and bringing it closer home into a Nigerian perspective. Talking about the subject of a Just Energy Transition, the conversation is that we should have a transition that is fair, equitable and inclusive. A transition that creates opportunities across the world in a way that no one is left behind.

Most times in these conversations, Africa can be assumed to be a passenger and not in the driving seat. We do not understand it enough and need to take control of the narrative and chart our direction for ourselves. But what people are not talking about sufficiently is “What is the case for saying the energy transition has to be just?”. Having a just Transition is the fact that there needs to be a conversation addressing where we are and resolving the way forward and taking into consideration how we got to this point, the responsibilities and accountabilities for it, which is not sufficiently talked about.

When you look at it from any lens, whether historical, current, or per capita basis, over 70% of all the carbon has been from the developed world, i.e., the US, China, The EU, India, Russia and Japan. They contributed and are contributing to 70% of the carbon emissions that are linked to climate change today. Africa is about 3.4% of that and Nigeria is less than 0.5%. So, when having a conversation around energy transition and attempting to locate Nigeria and Africa in such a conversation, we need to think of it from the perspective of an African conversation and not a European conversation.

It is also further compounded because energy transition talks about moving away from fossil fuels taking into consideration a country such as Nigeria being a mono-product country where most of our economy is directly linked to oil and gas export. Therefore, when we talk about an energy transition in 30 years’ time where we want a carbon-free society, meaning “No Oil and Gas”, how are we going to engineer our country? We should be having conversations in that direction.

There is a direct correlation between the amount of energy consumed and economic advancement owing to the amount of carbon produced. If we do not take a decision from an African or Nigerian perspective in the articulation of the transition journey, we will be further disadvantaged as we move forward. It will not just become an enabler; it can also become a disabler.

The Nigerian Energy Transition Plan

Talking about the Nigerian energy transition plan, the country as has indeed taken pivotal steps to take the lead and provide leadership in sub-Saharan Africa around energy transition. The transition plan can be demonstrated in 5 points.

1. To demonstrate Nigeria’s commitment to energy transition and net zero by 2060.
2. Nigeria taking a leadership role in enabling a just and equitable climate future for Africa.
3. Mobilize finance to jump-start the implementation of the plan.
4. It is focused on gas as a transition fuel and solar as the main pivot of the energy transition and renewable source.
5. The result it aims to achieve is ending energy poverty, lifting a million people out of financial poverty and creating a modern energy service system for Nigeria

Imperatives to ensure Nigeria can win

These are very important directions, objectives and results to be achieved. However, we think there needs to be more. The imperatives are:

1. For it to be a Nigerian Plan, we need to be talking about a Nigerian energy sufficiency and transition plan. The transition should be an enabler to address the sufficiency. Transition is a European imperative, while sufficiency should be an African imperative.
2. For sufficiency, we need to take the lead and invest in a plan that provides 100% for our people and energy sufficiency in a multipronged sufficiency plan. It should take into consideration, traditional energy sources, renewables and or new energies.

There are a lot of conversations that we can leap-frog the current and traditional energy system to a renewable system, citing mobile phone advancement as an example. But looking at the terrain and complexities. It is different and the capital involved to make that transition is significant. There is going to be a choice of pushing for either sufficiency or transition.

The thinking is that we use our resources to push for sufficiency bringing us to the next imperative that we need to attract the resources to make the transition work. If we must be part of the solution, we must be enabled to take a role in the solution.

There are a lot of discussions around technology transfer and Africans need to come to terms with the fact that there is nothing like technology transfer. No one will transfer a competitive advantage; we have to talk about technological acquisition. We need to find a way to get the technology in, which is the key role for us as engineers to find ways and means with leadership and policy direction from government and the inventiveness and creativity of our engineers to find a way around the technology to help in the journey.

What Heirs Holdings is doing from a Strategic Point

In Heirs Oil & Gas, we are part of a larger group; Heirs Holdings, with Mr. Tony Elumelu as Chairman, whose concept of Africapitalism essentially talks about a double bottom line of having commercial success and making sure we are making a social impact. He talks about doing well and doing good. In this, the Tony Elumelu Foundation is enabling our youths in a big way in the space of entrepreneurship.

Within Heirs Holdings we have an integrated energy strategy that possesses 3 arms:

1. Oil & Gas
2. Electricity
3. New Energies/Renewables

In oil and gas, we acquired OML 17, which is the flagship asset of HHOG in January 2021. We took over operational control in July 2021. In 100 days, we ramped up production from 27,000 to 52,000 and in 8 months, we more than doubled gas production from 50mmscf to 120mmscf. It is interesting to note that all our gas produced goes into the eastern domestic network.

On the leadership team, 40% of us are women. On electricity under Transcorp, we operate 15% of the installed electricity generation capacity in Nigeria, running the plants in Ughelli and Afam, it may interest you to know that the Transcorp business is led by a woman. With this, you can tell that Heirs Holdings is a female-centric organisation.

We are charting our way forward in terms of new energies; I was privileged to join our Chairman in a conversation with Senator John Kerry, the US envoy for Climate last week. We had a similar conversation, so it was quite apt when I reflected on the theme of this conference, and I think the organisers are right on the subject that is key today. We espoused our position to him, and there is an up head that in Africa, we need to lift people out of poverty with energy sufficiency and the transition is an enabler, therefore it should not be one or the other.

Conclusion

I want to thank APWEN for the opportunity to share these thoughts today.

The energy transition is just and enabling is not what others will do for us, we have to do it for ourselves.

Thank you.

Lagos, 20/08/21 – Heirs Oil & Gas (HHOG), the leading African integrated energy company, has announced important senior appointments to its management leadership team.

The newly appointed executives will join the Chief Executive Officer, Osayande Igiehon, to further the company’s strategic goals.

The team is comprised of leading industry professionals, with considerable regional and international experience, who are already executing HHOG’s ambition to build a truly indigenous, integrated energy company, focused on addressing Africa’s unique energy needs.

The Management team include:

Samuel Nwanze

Samuel Nwanze is Executive Director and Chief Finance Officer. Prior to this, he was the Chief Investment Officer at HHOG’s parent company, Heirs Holdings, responsible for the investment and capital management.

Nnene-Anochie Chidube

Nnene-Anochie Chidube is Vice-President, Community Affairs, Safety, Health, Environment and Security (CASHES). Nnene has over 30 years of extensive experience in the oil and gas sector, having worked in Nigeria, Middle East, and Asia, with Royal Dutch Shell (Shell). Her expertise spans oil and gas asset management, operational excellence for complex integrated hydrocarbon supply chains, health, safety environment including asset integrity and process safety management, risk and compliance.

Debo Adebajo

Debo Adebajo is Vice-President, Technical. Debo is an experienced petroleum engineer, with over 30 years of industry exposure, spanning oil and gas field development, project execution, strategy, and portfolio management. He previously worked in various Shell companies in Nigeria, Brunei and the Netherlands, occupying senior technical and management roles.

Bola Bode

Bola Bode is Vice-President, Production. With over 34 years of sector experience, Bola previously worked with Shell, where he was most recently Production Support Manager.

Eluemuno Olumagin

Eluemuno Olumagin is Deputy Vice-President, Corporate Resources. Elue is a human resource leader, with expertise in leveraging targeted people strategy, processes, and systems to drive business outcomes. She has over 19 years in-country and international experience, spanning talent acquisition and development, performance management and reward, as well as organisation development and effectiveness, with Total E&P and Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc.

Paschal Eva

Paschal Eva is Deputy Vice-President, Finance.  A chartered accountant with over 20 years of experience in performance and financial management. Prior to joining Heirs Oil & Gas, Paschal led the finance team at Nestoil Limited and was also Deputy General Manager at Neconde Energy Limited.

Commenting, Mr. Igiehon stated: “Aligning directly with our commitment to be Africa’s leading integrated energy company, we have assembled some of the finest talents in the industry. Their diverse experience, deep expertise and delivery capability is already delivering value in pursuit of HHOG’s growth ambitions, as we build a track record of value creation, institutional competence and strong relationships with all our stakeholders.

About Heirs Oil & Gas

Heirs Oil & Gas is a leading African, indigenous owned, integrated energy company, headquartered in Nigeria, whose assets include Nigerian oil block OML17, with a current production capacity of 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 2P reserves of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, with an additional 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources of further exploration potential.

Heirs Oil & Gas (HHOG) is jointly owned by Heirs Holdings, the leading African strategic investor and affiliate company Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), Nigeria’s largest publicly listed conglomerate.