Nigeria has urged the global community to put women and girls at the centre of the energy transition.
In a bold call for gender-inclusive development, linking clean energy access to empowerment through sport and community progress during the side event “Catalysing Energy Justice: Energising Communities Through Girls/Women and Sport”, Nigeria’s Chargé d’Affaires to the United Nations, Syndoph Endoni, said equitable energy access is essential not only for powering communities but for unlocking human potential.
“Energy is far more than a commodity,” Ambassador Endonni stated. “It is an enabler of dignity, opportunity, and human progress.”
Addressing the event held on the margins of the 70th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) in New York, he highlighted how millions of women and girls worldwide suffer from energy poverty, limiting education, economic participation, health, and well-being.
“Energy access and energy justice are deeply gendered issues. We must ensure that energy transitions are inclusive, equitable, and responsive,” the Chargé d’Affaires stated.
Ambassador Endoni also underscored sport’s transformative role in empowerment.
“When women and girls actively participate in sport, they build confidence, leadership, and resilience…When powered by clean energy, sports facilities become catalysts for inclusive development,” he said
Reaffirming Nigeria’s commitment, he framed the energy transition as “an opportunity to build resilient industries driven by innovation, clean technologies, and the potential of our youth,”
Endoni urged collaboration across governments, civil society, and the private sector. “Let this dialogue inspire partnerships that ensure energy justice truly energises communities,” he said.
Delivering a Keynote address, a women and youth development expert, Lady Tee Thompson, emphasised “energy as a key driver of national progress.”
The event, organised by DoTheDream Youth Development Initiative and co-hosted by the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, showcased the Girls in Energy Project.
Its leaders, Omopeju Afanu and Adebusuyi Olutayo Olumadewa, explained: “They represent structural barriers to education, healthcare, women’s economic participation, safety, and digital inclusion. When girls light pathways to energy justice, communities ignite with possibility.”
The event also served as a high-level platform to mobilise USD 20 million from governments, development finance institutions, private sector leaders, foundations, and philanthropists.
The convening positioned women and girls “not as beneficiaries, but as catalysts of energy justice—leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and drivers of sustainable adoption and accountability.”