While addressing participants during an ongoing hybrid online and physical week-long engagement of women miners and entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone, Dr. Comfort Asokoro-Ogaji, Executive Director of Women in Mining Africa (WiM-Africa), delivered a compelling message calling on women in mining organizations across the continent to shun every form of competition that impedes collective growth and instead embrace meaningful collaboration as the key to lasting progress.
“Collaboration is the true alternative to competition,” Dr. Asokoro-Ogaji declared. “When women compete destructively, it divides our strength and slows our progress. But when we collaborate, we build power that moves the sector—and the continent—forward.”
She emphasized that the future of Africa’s mining industry depends on women supporting each other’s growth through partnerships, joint ventures, and cooperative structures that foster shared prosperity.
“In the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, collaboration means forming cooperatives that actually work—women pooling resources, skills, and tools to scale up production and safety. Among companies, it means merging capacities to become stronger together. And in advocacy, it means designing and launching joint programs that strengthen one another’s institutions instead of competing for recognition,” she stated.
In response to a question about the replication of WiM-Africa’s programs at the national or local levels, Dr. Comfort gave her full endorsement — urging all Women in Mining (WiM) organizations across Africa to prioritize NextGen programs and invest intentionally in the professional development of young women in the sector. She emphasized that the next decade must produce a new generation of vibrant, intelligent, and professionally grounded female leaders driving policy, innovation, ESG, and enterprise within Africa’s mining industry. Dr. Ogaji encouraged national and community WiM chapters to “copy all that there is to copy from WiM-Africa” — adapting its frameworks, fellowships, and leadership models to strengthen their own structures and ensure continuity of impact.
Dr. Asokoro-Ogaji further called for closer ties between women-led enterprises, mineral sourcing companies, beneficiation industries, and continental policy bodies. She urged the formation of alliances that align with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 – “The Africa We Want”, ensuring that women play a central role in driving responsible mineral value chains and economic transformation.
She concluded by reaffirming WiM-Africa’s commitment to building a unified, inclusive, and sustainable mining sector through the ongoing implementation of its Five-Year Action Plan (2025–2030), which seeks to empower women miners, strengthen cooperatives, and expand industrial value addition across Africa.
