A UK-based organisation fostering dialogues for Africa’s power and energy sectors, Energy Network Limited, has honoured the Nigeria Indigenous Women in Mining and Natural Resources organisation (NIWIMNRO), for its outstanding performance in capacity building for women artisanal miners in Nigeria.

NIWIMNRO is a Nigeria NGO aiming at connecting and empowering indigenous women in the mining sector. The organisation represents 350 ethnic and indigenous women, promoting their active contribution to best practices and sustainable solutions in mining.

Presenting the award at the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) office on Wednesday in Abuja, the Editorial and Content Manager of the Energy News Network (ENN), the news outlet of EnergyNet Ltd, Charlotte Lamb, said the group’s continuation in training and incorporating artisanal mining women in Nigeria since inception is meticulous.

This, according to the manager, has shown the groups’s commitment to ensure that women and mining communities across the country get back from what is taken out from their community and environment.

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“The webinar began with a conversation between two of your board members on a short course in Australia. Since then, you have trained women in Abuja and Kaduna, you’ve drawn from Niger and Nasarawa, on their rights, on their safety, and on how to manage what they earn.

“What strikes me is that you have not stopped at training, but organising women into cooperatives that can hold licences and enter formal commercial agreements. You are also aggregating hubs where lithium, gold and tin are collected, graded and taken properly into the value chain.

“And now, the memorandum signed at Athens in June is responsible for health, education and water, funded through mining royalties. That last one matters most. Everyone in this sector talks about what communities should get back from what is taken out from the ground beneath them.

“You have taken on the job of making it happen. You are our women in mining association partner for Nigeria now, “she said while presenting the award.

Gemma Gosling, Head of Production and Abdoulaye Sylla, Head of Africa Portfolio & Corporate Development for the company, were also present at the event.

In her remarks, the Executive Director of the Indigenous Women Artisanal Miners Initiatives, Felicia Dairo, also recognises the support of the organisation in fostering NIWIMNRO’s goals in ensuring a promising future for artisanal women miners in Nigeria.

Mrs Dairo, while reflecting on the journey said, without support received from Energynet, CJID and others, her group would have had difficulties achieving what it achieved across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, where women live and their mining communities are being transformed.

“It’s been a great honour knowing you and collaborating with you. I think our journey started in 2024 in Barcelona. Fast forward to 2025, we had our first engagement with you when you sponsored us to South Africa for the AEF event.

“And all through the journey, you were with us. We were together in Niger State, where we commissioned the boreholes, and even the event we organised afterwards. And this is just to say that we appreciate all of this so much, and whatever the support is, it’s not just for the women, but for the women at the grassroots who are trying to ensure that they are also formally brought into the sector,” she said.

Mrs Dairo further recounted that since the last engagement with the UK-based company, the group has trained 165 women in total under the DAP grant by the Australian High Commission in Nigeria, visited three more states after Niger, Nasarawa, and Kaduna.

“We have touched all the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. And beyond just what we do there, not just capacity building, not just to talk, we identify issues that those communities have and try to provide intervention for some of those things. So beyond the capacity building, after the training, this year, we’ve been able to distribute personal protective equipment for about 60 of those women, including helmets and gloves.

“And again for all the communities, because we know they just work without paying much attention to their health, we try to bring medical personnel to the mining communities, where they check them and give them necessary health advice.

She also stated that the group has begun advocating for the formalisation of the sector, particularly for women, transitioning miners from illicit activities into a government-recognised framework.

“And then again, because the work that slum women do, slum miners generally, it’s largely informal, and the government see them as illegal miners, so we try to see how we can formalise the sector, not just giving them the training, but we want to bring them into a form where they are recognised and the government can see these people are doing mining rights.

“So what we do is to formalise them and put them into cooperatives. The federal government also has this initiative. So, it works closely with the state government to register them and also works with the federal government to ensure they are fully registered. So when they are fully registered they are able to of course have access to the registration services.

“We signed an MOU recently with the Africans for Africa initiative, and one of the things they want to do is to ensure that these people are formalised, and then as soon as they are formalised they can use their licence for commercial engagement contracts.

“And again, we are currently working on analysing the Gender Act, the Mining Act, where we look at the Mining Act, gender perspectives. So, we’re trying to see how we can identify the gaps and then see how we can take that conversation to another level for policy reform to incorporate or to make it more inclusive.

“We just want to say thank you again for your support. Thank you for believing in our vision and for walking this journey with us. We are here today because of the support we get from people like the Australian High Commission, like the CJID. CJID has been greatly behind all that we’ve been able to do in this short period of time.

READ ALSO: NIWIMNRO, AFA Initiative sign strategic partnership to advance inclusive mining in Nigeria

During the closing remarks, Mr Sylla said his organisation recognises the effort of the Nigerian Initiatives, especially for its work with the Indigenous women artisanal miners, and of its role in ensuring that mining investment reaches the communities it comes from.

“We should thank you guys for allowing us to be part of this journey because we understand some of the reality, but we are not on the ground. You guys are on the ground.

“And those women we saw last year when we came are the backbone of a lot of economic development within our community. They are super important. We have a saying in French, ‘you’re putting your head where people don’t put their legs.’

“So, you’re doing the job that so many people don’t want to do. So, to allow us to be part of that journey, just seeing the passion in your eyes, you have no idea how inspiring that is for EnergyNet, for us to be continuing to push what we are doing,” he said.