Posted Tue, Mar 8, 2022 8:23 AM

IWD 2022: Walking our talk towards gender equality

I join you and the rest of the world to felicitate with women of all races and creeds who work from the home front, communities and organisations to build an equitable society we can be proud of.

This year’s International Women’s Day mandates us to take responsibility for a world devoid of bias, stereotypes and discrimination against women.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right.  As such, we must work assiduously towards making opportunities, resources and rewards available to anyone deserving of them, regardless of gender.

In a gender-balanced Nigeria, 6.34 million girls will not be out of school; neither will 36% of women be financially excluded, and a paltry 20% make up executive teams in the workforce.

At the NESG, we are appalled by these sobering statistics. This compels us to take practical steps towards improving the narrative and hoping each of us will do likewise. Currently, 43.4% of our entire staff are female, and 44.4% have attained managerial level. We are actively working to increase female representation on our Board and ensure our recruitment processes for internal and external stakeholders continue to be gender-neutral. We run an organisation where every staff has equal access to opportunities, growth, and support to be the best version of themselves. We remain committed to this noble mandate.

However, we are not limiting our efforts to the internal audience. Gender equality is copiously infused into our strategy via the NESG Community of Practice on Gender. We trust this will raise national consciousness on the imperative of achieving gender equality and spur our leadership and citizenry to action.

I sincerely wish every one of our womenfolk a happy International Women’s Day 2022, and trust that together, we will #BreakTheBias in no distant time.   

‘Laoye Jaiyeola

CEO

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Click here to watch the NESG’s rallying call.