Emefiele calls for more management roles for women at banks’ board

The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele on Thursday called for more appointment of women into management positions in banks.

He said this in Abuja, while speaking at an event organised by the CBN to celebrate the International Women’s Day.

He stressed that there was the need to increase the level of participation of women in key positions in the private sector as well.

The CBN boss said that the present situation, where only three out of the 27 chief executive officers of banks in Nigeria were women, was not acceptable, adding that the apex bank was mindful of the importance of women in the society, noting that this was why the CBN had championed the cause of women in the society.

To this end, he said that the number of female directors in the CBN had moved up from one in 2001 to six in 2017.

Similarly, he said that the percentage of women employees in the CBN had moved up from 24 per cent in 2013 to 28 per cent in 2017.

The apex bank boss said over the years, the bank had been implementing various programmes and policies aimed at developing the economic potential and development of women.

“In realisation of male domination of senior positions of the financial industry, the Bankers’ Committee adopted the quota system to increase women representation on Boards to 30 per cent.

“They also increased women participation at senior management level to 40 per cent in 2014.

“As a result today, three out of the 27 Bank CEOs are female with three women appointed as Chair of the Boards of three Banks for the first time.

“Despite this progress, it is obvious we have not met our goals. Therefore, we have to work much harder to improve these numbers and attain our objectives,’’ he said.

Emefiele also said that the CBN recognises the fact that gender equality and diversity were powerful tools for economic growth. For this reason, he said the CBN had institutionalised policies and programmes to overcome some of the barriers that were hampering women from rising to the top of their careers.

In a related development, the Special Adviser to the CBN Governor on Sustainable Banking, Dr Aisha Mahmood, said that women were `key’ to the economic development of Nigeria.

“It has been proven that women have immense potential as engines of growth and economic development. “Consequently, empowering them becomes beneficial to the society at large,’’ she said.