Dangote: Promoting Gender Equality

Promoting gender equality has become a globally recognised and an acceptable reality.
Indeed, gender issues have been identified as critical to the achievement of national development goals and the attainment of gender equality is not only seen as an end in itself but also as a catalyst for the achievement of sustainable development.
In Nigeria, some laudable efforts have been made to put in place the necessary mechanisms required for the elimination of gender discrimination so as to ensure gender parity and human dignity.
It is not a surprise therefore, that the president/chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has been in the forefront of canvassing for gender equality.
As a matter of fact, it has been seen as a practice in his organisations.
To underscore the need for gender equality, the Dangote Group has been championing the implementation of programmes and policies that help strengthen the collective resolve to boost equality in the workplace.
Only recently, the Dangote Group takes its resolve to boost gender equality some steps higher when the Dangote Foundation sponsored the Dangote 2019 Women Corporate Directors (WCD) Lecture.
Indeed, stakeholders at the lecture called for law promoting gender equality in the country even as they advocated for a legislative backing that will allow a certain percentage of women in public or private sectors’ work force.
It will be recalled that the Nigerian chapter of the Women Corporate Directors (WCD) Foundation was launched last year. The foundation is a global membership organisation and community of women corporate directors that is committed, not just to good governance, but to governance with global vision.
Women Corporate Directors is the world’s largest membership organisation and community of women corporate board directors.
Speaking during the lecture, in Lagos, last week Thursday, Dangote stated that “We can start with a proportion of like 30 women to 70 men on the board”, noting that increasing the number of women in corporate world would lead to increase in innovation and innovative thinking, which opens up the door of fresh perspective. He observed that having women on board of directors reduces governance related issues and ultimately results in better performance.
The boardroom guru said “from my businesses as well, my three daughters all take on challenging roles as senior executive at the Group level and I can tell you that they have led the businesses to success.
“We have a strong number of women at Dangote Industries across board, a lot of women occupy important leadership, and their efficiency have been noticed” he enthused.
Dangote added that with the calibre of women at the event today, ranging from board executives of various organisation, business executives and top government executives, it was clear that women in the work force have started taking their rightful place in Nigeria and across Africa.
He however said despite this impressive achievement, there is still a lot of work to be done to close the gender gap in the world work place.
Nigerian women according to Dangote are climbing the corporate ladder as the nation has a good number of them as CEO of top firms, members of board of directors, chairperson of board of companies like the former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nike Akande.
He listed other women who are making the nation and indeed the womenfolks proud to include chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Ibukunoluwa Awosika, chairman of Access Bank, Mosunmola Belo-Olusoga, chairman of Guaranty Trust Bank, Osaretin Demuren, to mention a few.
“At Dangote Group, we practice what we preach and women have excelled to board of directors, for example the chairman of NASCON Allied Industries is a woman, Mrs. Yemisi Ayeni. We ran an organisation that women aspired to the highest position without hindrances.”
Fundamentally, the meeting which provided an opportunity to discuss challenges confronting women in the work place, many believed, will open more doors for women as the world continued to close the gender gap.
Dangote observed that the World Bank report showed that women and girls account for 40 per cent of Nigeria’s population which comes to over 90 million noting “they represent a huge assets for our country and we collectively tap into their potentials for the development of our economy. I can assure you that Dangote Group will continue to strengthen and mentor women in assuming leadership role in corporate world”.
Speaking on the theme, ‘The courage to Lead; Inspiring Others, Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Success’, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn who is the guest speaker said that gender equality is important as women potentially represent half of the world’s pool of talents and prospects for advancement.
He said “For Africa to prosper, we need to engage and give chance to women to be very active in our politics, economic and business environment.”
Desalegn noted that women have special value that should be harnessed by Africa, saying “in country that have grown in human capital index, then you find in those countries, women were very active, they have truly occupied places in the societies.”
Also, executive director of Dangote Industries, Halima Aliko-Dangote emphasised the need for equality gender in the country, saying that “In Dangote Group, we are ensuring that stereotypes is seriously eliminated, looking at our board we are having almost 50 per cent of women on the board member.”
She insisted that a bill promoting gender equality should be passed so as to give room for fair representation of women any organisations.
For her part, wife of former British Prime Minister, Cherie Blair pointed out that people are a nation’s most valuable assets, saying that this leads to the reason of having gender equality across all of society.
She noted that any country that persistently fails to engage and develop the potential of ‘half of its most valuable asset’ which is women, will continue to underperform adding
“We are making progress in this fight with increase in the number of women in the corporate world just like what we have in Nigeria.”
According to her, harnessing the incredible talents and potential of women is not only the right thing to do, it will also create stronger economies and a fairer society for all.
Gender equality has always been a moral imperative. Various studies have shown that beyond being the right thing to do, promoting gender equality is also good for business, the economy and it is ultimately good for everyone.
It has also been said that expanding the talent pool by empowering women and giving them equal opportunity to work can increase economic productivity and provide considerable gains for businesses. Companies can have more skilled and better qualified personnel to choose from, thereby increase their prospects for improved operational efficiency and return on shareholders’ investment. Decision-making can also be enhanced by having more diversity.
Perhaps this is what informed the decision of the Dangote Group to support gender equality.

(Leadership)