Nigerian women have been lauded for making progress in the corporate world, as many are now engaged with series of appointments in both the public and private sector of the economy.
Making the commendation in celebration of the 2020 International Women’s Day, Funke Amobi, the Head, Human Capital, Stanbic IBTC Holding Co, said, as a human resource leader, and custodian of corporate talent, “I can submit that a key achievement recorded by Nigerian women in recent times is in the area of breaking the proverbial glass ceiling into the top corporate C-suite roles.
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According to her, “Nigerian women have made good progress in this area with the notable appointments of females recorded in private and public sector as well as on the global landscape into roles which typically men have occupied, this certainly gives a fair sense of progress.”
She said, “We now have Nigerian women in roles with regional and continent oversight, especially, in the financial services industry, the appointments of women like Sola David Borha – CEO Africa Regions Standard Bank, Bola Adesola, Senior VP, Africa Standard Chartered Bank and Ibukun Awosika – Chairman, First Bank, all validate this submission. This notwithstanding, without a doubt, there is yet a long way to go on the subject of improved female representation at the top.”
On the area of the call for gender equality, Amobi said that “the subject of gender equality and equal opportunity for men and women in society requires a multiple stakeholder commitment. All stakeholders need to come on board to improve our gender development index as a nation. Nigeria has been ranked 133 out of 149 countries in the Global Gender Gap Indices for the current year.”
“Whilst many organisations in Nigeria have risen to this call by signing on to several initiatives such as the United Nations HeforShe movement, a lot more still need to stand to be counted. There is also an opportunity for the government to further drive this mandate through policy making and integration of gender diversity metrics into the political and socio-economic fabric of the nation,” Amobi said.