Transitioning to the use of clean energy, and in particular clean energy for cooking, is especially important for women in Africa. So highlighted South African Electricity and Energy Deputy Minister Samantha Jane Graham-Maré, in her keynote address to the Women in Energy breakfast at Africa Energy Indaba 2025, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Clean cooking had to be a focus for African women, she affirmed. More than 600 000 women and girls died in Africa every year, from indoor pollution caused by having to use biomass fuel for cooking.

This was a cause that had garnered international support, she pointed out. The International Finance Corporation, the arm of the World Bank focused on supporting the private sector in developing countries, had established a $1-billion fund to invest in companies developing clean energy, including clean cooking, in Africa. Denmark, France, Spain and the UK had also committed extra funds to help advance clean cooking options across the continent.

Clean cooking also advanced gender equality. It meant that women and girls no longer had to spend hours every day collecting firewood, but could use that time in other ways, including by becoming small-scale entrepreneurs.

And one area for such entrepreneurship was the distribution of clean cooking products. A successful example of this, she cited, was the “Solar Sisters” initiative, which enabled women entrepreneurs in several African countries to start, sustain and grow clean energy businesses, including the distribution of solar lamps and clean cooking products, in their local communities.

Supporting women in energy supported clean energy as well as gender equality, asserted Graham-Maré. And gender equality benefitted companies. Research had shown that companies whose executive committees were more than 33% female had net profit margins more than ten times higher than those companies which had no women on their executive committees.

The Department of Electricity and Energy’s (DEE’s) predecessor department, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, had developed a five-year (2021-2025) Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Strategy for the energy sector, which the DEE had taken over. The implementation of this strategy had created business opportunities for more than 1 000 women, she reported. Women entrepreneurs had also been provided with networking opportunities and with training in how to respond to tenders.

The Deputy Minister stressed that this had been done in partnership with energy sector associations and companies. This included the establishment of women in energy sector associations.

But the strategy had proven to have some significant gaps. For example, the department had not facilitated market access for women-led companies. A successor gender equality strategy was being developed by the DEE. This had also had to address gender-based violence within the energy sector.

She was particularly excited by the opportunities being created by the emerging green hydrogen sector. As this was a new industry, it meant that it was not male-dominated and that women were in, from the very start.

“While we celebrate milestones, there is much work still to be done,” highlighted Graham-Maré. The green energy transition had to include gender equality. She asserted that it was essential to build an energy sector in which women did not merely participate, but in which women must lead, innovate and thrive.