ICYMI: Mining Industry: Women Keep Mining SMEs Going

Mining Industry: Women Keep Mining SMEs Going

A unique gender disparity has been observed among Nigeria’s Small and Medium Enterprises, the 2023 Social Impact Report shows. 

Research shows that skilled women are becoming industrialists in the mining sector, and those who have access to loans are investing in the mining business. 

While male industrialists outnumber females in every other industry reported in 2022, it is the other way around for the mining sector of SMEs.

However, women entrepreneurs in small-scale mining companies have not increased. They only outnumber the males because the number of the latter has declined much more significantly by 2022.

This general decline in the number of small-scale mining industrialists coincides with the decline in the output of the mining sector as a whole.

It is on women now to sustain productivity in the mining sector.

As of 2022, there were 11,784 female mining entrepreneurs in Nigeria while there are 10,738 males.

More than 1 Industry: Women in Whole and Retail Trade and Real Estate SMEs

However, Mining SMEs are not the only ones where female industrialists have outnumbered men.

As of 2021, there were more women industrialists than men in Whole and Retail Trade and Real Estate SMEs.

Mining Industrialists: Preference for Female Business Leads

A Premium Times report shows that women with means and knowledge about the mining business sponsor different roles and make profits from buying and selling, while the ‘‘illiterates’’ are employed as laborers. These categories of people earn less. 

‘‘For instance, Mrs Esther Yakubu has been sponsoring, buying and selling tin over the last two years since she first ventured into the business. When she first started in 2018, she had only N10,000 and had to get a loan from the FJK company where she works. Ever since then, she has been able to carry out enough business. Through this, she has been able to buy a piece of land and train herself through school.’’