By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – IN a bid to synergize initiatives and resources in upscaling mining activities across Africa, the Executive Director, of Women in Mining Africa, WiM-Africa, Dr Comfort Asokoro-Ogaji, has urged women solid minerals sector to shun every form of competition to embrace collaboration.

Asokoro-Ogaji made the call while addressing participants during an hybrid online and physical week-long engagement of women miners and entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone.

She stressed that competition only impedes collective growth and development of the sector, therefore, it is imperative for women miners and stakeholders to work closely and champion one course to achieve the desired goals and objectives at the end of the day instead of unnecessary rivalries.

Meanwhile, she maintained that Africa’s mining industry depends on women supporting and working together that ensure each other’s growth through productive partnerships, joint ventures, and cooperative structures that foster shared prosperity.

Adding that the only sustainable way to drive and transform the sector is to forge ahead with loser 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 also reassured 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.

She said: “Collaboration is the true alternative to competition. 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.

“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.”

Meanwhile, in her response to a question 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 also expressed optimism that the next decade new generation of vibrant, intelligent, and professionally grounded female leaders driving policy, innovation, ESG, and enterprise within Africa’s mining industry will be produced.

The WiM-Africa boss also urged the 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.