I am delighted to welcome you all this morning to the 2021 WISCAR Annual Leadership and Mentoring Conference. Let me especially welcome those physically in the room with us today, what a joy to be back! After almost 2 years of trying to build back better from the global COVID 19 pandemic. To all of you online, thank you for joining us. We have taken the necessary steps to deliver what we hope will be a great virtual experience for you.
It indeed gladdens my heart to have the opportunity to see all our friends, partners, and supporters with your masks on. The COVID virus is still with us, so l urge you all to continue to observe all the protocols. This gathering tells a story of survival, resilience, determination and God’s favour to keep going in-spite of the challenges we have faced individually and collectively in the past year. The whole world has been affected by the by COVID pandemic. May the souls of the departed rest in perfect peace. That you chose to join us this morning both physically and online is a blessing that we do not take for granted. Once again, a very warm welcome to you all.
It has been exactly 20 months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19outbreak a global pandemic that has since left the world recuperating from the global lockdown and devastating economic impact. The crisis also regressed some of the gains made to achieve gender equality and women empowerment. Thus, making the race to achieve gender equality and parity even more urgent! Against all the odds, we have seen and continue to see women continuing to press for progress and challenge the status quo. Women have demonstrated excellence in leadership at the frontlines in the COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts and across key sectors of our economy.
So, what has the landscape been for women in leadership? The percentage of women on boards in Nigeria as at August 2020 stood at 20%, well above the world average of 17%, the African average of 14% and West African average of 11%. Furthermore, in what many observers have described as a paradigm shift, the Nigerian banking sector witnessed a surge in the number of women at the top, with currently eight women serving as Chief Executive Officers /Managing Directors (MDs) of leading banks. This is the outcome of the gender friendly policies and targets put in place by the CBN several years ago.
Women are also leading and playing big in Power, Energy, Technology, Healthcare, FMCG and Hospitality sectors to name a few and delivering on their mandates! They include the Group Managing Director/CEO, AG Leventis (Nigeria) Limited, the Chairperson, Guinness Nigeria, MD Cadbury Nigeria, MD Maersk Nigeria, the President/Group CEO Transcorp PLC and the Managing Director/CEO Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO). There has indeed been some progress, the glass ceiling is being shattered, but there is still a long way to go! We will be hearing from some of these leading women today.
In terms of women’s participation and representation in politics and governance the story is different. The 2019 elections witnessed the return of only a few women in political leadership in Nigeria. Today, only seven out of 109 senators and 22 of the 360 House of Representatives members are women. Nigeria has never had a female Governor, female Vice-President or indeed President. This picture needs to change in 2023. So, ladies, go and get your PVC and vote for or support female candidates.
At our Conference last year, themed “The Future We Want”, we deliberated on the future we want for women and girls and for Nigeria. In the course of our work in 2021, we took forward some of the recommendations made by participants at our 2021 convening towards actualizing that future. We desire a future where all men and women are treated equally and have equal access to opportunities based on merit. A future where women’s rights are treated as human rights. We are here to stay! and we are ready to PLAY BIG and TAKE OUR PLACE at all levels and across all sectors of society to contribute to the development of our nation in line with our mission to develop women to build a better nation.
Indeed,
- It is time to give priority to our healthcare delivery system so that there is equity and access for ALL.
- It is time for women to be fully represented in political and private leadership – a minimum of 35% representation in line with the electoral reform.
- It is time for the gender imbalances and inequalities to be addressed.
- It is time for the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill, 2019, currently going through 2nd reading in the NASS to be passed into law.
- It is time for Constitutional review and Electoral reforms.
- It is time to address gender-based violence and women’s access to property and decision-making.
- It is time for the Child Rights Act to be domesticated in every state of the Federation
- It is time to take our rightful place as partners in progress for real development and our collective prosperity.
Women have always played an influential role in their homes and in public life enabling others to lead. What we have not always done so well is make our voices heard by stepping forward to lead to influence policy and decision making. Thus, showcasing and celebrating women exemplars and role models who not only inspire by their actions but who also pay it forward by lifting other women up through mentorship and sponsorship is part of the WISCAR ideal. Therefore, at the heart of this conference and the line-up of events that have been curated this year, is role-modelling, mentorship and the celebration of excellence! This conference will showcase leading women, playing big in their various fields, from social innovation to entrepreneurship, to the corporate world and Politics, in spite of the constraints. They are all women who are, driving change and transformation and making a difference.
It is our sincere belief and hope that at the end of this conference, we will all be inspired to take charge of our career and our destiny to achieve our aspirations and dreams and be agents of change in our society.
Mahatma Gandhi said “You must be the change you wish to see in the world!” WISCAR is proud to have continued in 2021 to actualize its goal to accelerate change towards the good society that we wish to see. Through our advocacy, programmes, collaborations, and partnerships we have actively worked towards accelerating Women’s development for leadership in the following ways:
Our flagship WIN-with-WISCAR Structured Mentoring Programmes are;
- WIN I – for talented beginners with under 5 years’ experience.
- WIN II – for women aspiring for senior management roles with 5-10 years’ experience.
- WIN III – addresses women with over 10 years’ experience already in senior management and aspiring for C-Suite, Executive Management and Board roles. We enable readiness!
In 2021 we continued to build the capacity and capability of the next generation of young women through leadership development and structured mentoring programmes. Innovation is at the heart of our programming at WISCAR and we are proud to report that all of our mentoring programmes are now delivered online, thus ensuring that our programmes are accessible to even more aspiring mentees across Nige-ria and beyond.
For those who may not be familiar, the key features of our WIN Programmes include;
- A careful matching of each mentee with a selected mentor to help the mentee begin to meet the realization of her goals and ambitions.
- Career webinars aimed at improving the personal, interpersonal, and organizational effectiveness of the mentees.
- Book reviews that encourage a reading culture, enhance subject matter knowledge, strategic skills, and improve work ethic.
- Role Modelling and networking through Meet-A-WISCAR sessions.
Additionally,
- Several of our programs, in collaboration with our partners Habiba Balogun Consulting, are open to the public both women and men to bridge professional skills gaps; and add to their professional skill sets.
Our 12th stream of mentees of the WIN 1 & 2 programmes, a class of 40 young women located across Nigeria will be graduating today from the rigorous 12- month structured mentoring programme. We are extremely proud of them for their, open mindedness, their staying power, their resilience, their growth and determination. To this 12th stream of WISCAR Mentees, I salute and congratulate to you. You have already started making us proud as a cohort through your group project and pay-it forward initiative, organizing and executing a 1-day mentoring session for young girls in secondary schools under the auspices of the WISCAR Grow and Learn Initiative (GLIN). We are confident that with the skills and guidance which you have acquired from your mentors and the several masterclasses and projects you have participated in, you can navigate any glass cliff, labyrinth or ceiling that you come across to quote the DG of WTO. We look forward to hearing your future stories of success. See you at the very top!
Following a popular call for applications we received well over 60 applications and following a rigorous selection process we admitted 11 qualified women in senior management across various sectors into our bespoke WIN 3 Programme.
WIN 3 consists of carefully curated masterclasses that build the critical leadership competencies and skills required to develop senior female leadership talent and create a direct talent pathway to Executive Management and Boards. You will be hearing from one of the beneficiaries of the WIN 3 programme later today.
2021 Partnerships and Collaborations
In addition to our internal programs and activities, we were privileged to collaborate with several reputable organizations to scale our mission. As you may know, last year WISCAR collaborated with UN Women Nigeria on “The Beijing +25 Intergenerational Mentorship Programme” to mark 25 years post the Beijing conference. Following the successful execution of this pioneering mentorship programme; this year together with UN Women Nigeria, we launched 12-episodes of the “Sheroes of Beijing Stories; Podcast Series” powered by the EU/UN Spotlight Initiative. The podcast created an additional platform to increase access to these powerful inspiring Sheroes, and the mentoring conversations we were privileged to have with them.
The podcast series precedes the launch of a special book “The Sheroes of Beijing; Telling the Nigeria Stories 25 years after the 4th World Conference on Women’’ Today, we will be launching this publication that has been carefully curated and shares the stories of twenty phenomenal women who participated in the 1999Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. These women also served as mentors in the pioneering mentoring program. The book documents part of our history and should serve as a legacy resource for all women and men. We will be giving out a few free copies to participants so please watch this space!
Furthermore, we are delighted to announce a strategic collaboration with UN Women Nigeria. In September 2021, WISCAR was appointed Private Sector Liaison to UN Women Nigeria to strengthen private sector support and participation towards the acceleration of several UJN Women, Gender Equality and Gender Empowerment (GEWE) initiatives. Our key mandate under this partnership is to sensitize private sector companies to become signatories to the UN Women & United Nations Global Compact – Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs). The WEPs represent a fantastic framework with 7 simple steps that leaders can take to advance gender equality in the workplace, marketplace, and community. We implore private sector leaders who are present here today, to consider joining the WEPs community. More information on the WEP’s and how you can become a signatory can be found in our Conference brochure.
Riding on the back of the WEPs and our work as Private Sector Liaison to UN Women, is our advocacy to end all forms of Gender based Violence against women. We are also advocating for the passage of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill, a bill which has suffered many setbacks but through consultative efforts with a wide range of stakeholders including private sector leaders, now has a strong opportunity to make it through its next round in the legislative process. The private sector has an interest and role to play in ensuring that this bill, which provides for a more inclusive and equitable society, where women are afforded the opportunity to participate across all spheres of life is passed ONCE and FOR ALL.
It is time! Our work as members of the UN Women UNstereotype Alliance also sees us advocating not only for fairer representation of women in advertising but as subjects of advertising campaigns.
We are profoundly grateful to FCMB for choosing us as partners once again to execute their 5th and 6thcycles of the She-Ventures Mentoring program. Through structured mentorship and strategic skills development, we are immensely proud to be part of the success stories of over 200 female SMEs impacted in these 2 cycles.
This year, we also concluded the first phase of our work with Alluvial Agriculture under a MasterCard funded programme to provide gender mainstreaming support and training for grassroots women champions, to scale up block chain farming to over 65,000 small holder farmer beneficiaries.
It has indeed been a fulfilling and Impactful year for WISCAR. We have touched many lives positively and have helped to accelerate the opportunities for women in leadership. We look forward with great anticipation to the returns on the investments made. Our key performance indicator remains skills and capability enhancement and the increased numbers of women in the leadership pipeline actualizing their aspirations and shattering the proverbial glass ceiling to take their place in society.
We kicked off this year’s Annual leadership and Mentoring Conference with our WISCAR Mentoring walk at the scenic Eko Atlantic City, where we walked to emphasize the importance of mentorship, role model-ling, networks, and female leadership in our journeys to Playing Big and Taking our Place. We also hosted an insightful virtual youth panel with young leaders playing big in various sectors and nine (9) speed mentor-ing roundtable sessions with accomplished and experienced industry experts many of whom also served as WISCAR mentors.
Today’s event is our flagship event and marks the Grand Finale of the WISCAR 2021 Annual Leadership &Mentoring Conference. We have a power-packed line up for you. Our esteemed panelists in the persons of; Kafilat Araoye, MD/CEO Lotus Bank, Fola Laoye, CEO of Iwosan Investments, Owen Omogiafo, President & Group CEO of Transcorp Plc, and Lara Lana, Managing Director, Maersk Nigeria, in a keynote panel session moderated by Kayode Okikiolu, well known Presenter/Reporter-Channels Television. Our panelists will share from their own personal experiences the importance of female leadership in economic growth and sustainable development of our nation.
We will, as is our custom be bestowing the 10th Distinguished WISCAR Award to a worthy recipient, a woman in leadership, a role model, a financial expert, and innovative leader Mrs. Bola Adesola. After delivering what I know will be an inspiring keynote address, I will be engaging her in a fireside chat. Before l hand over the microphone to our MC, Tokunboh George-Taylor. Permit me to specially acknowledge and appreciate all our sponsors and donors for their generous financial and in-kind support to WISCAR this year and from inception. Without your support and partnership, we would not be here today. May the work that we achieve together through your gifts of time, intellect and sponsorship continue to inspire and deliver the change we want to see in our world.
I also wish to express profound appreciation to our Patrons, our formidable WISCAR Advisory Board, Member of the various WISCAR Subcommittees and our selfless, inspiring, and growing community of WISCAR members and Mentors, Mentees, Alumni and volunteers for your continued support. We are first and foremost a leadership and mentoring network that depends on the generosity and commitment of others to succeed. I thank the 2021 conference planning committee led by our chairperson, Folake Ani-Mumuney for working tirelessly to deliver 4 unique events this year in line with our conference theme. Finally, I thank the staff of the WISCAR secretariat led by our Executive director, Fabia Ogunmekan for their hard work and dedication to advance the WISCAR vision.
In closing I would like to leave you with these words from Tara Mohr author of the book PLAYING BIG. ‘Playing big doesn’t come from working more, pushing harder, or finding confidence. It comes from listening to the most powerful and secure part of you, not the voice of self-doubt.”
I thank all of you in advance for your active participation. To all us in the room, and to our actively engaged online audience stay tuned and get ready to be inspired, because it is TIME to be bold. It is time to LEAD, to PLAY BIG – and to Take Our Place.
Thank you!
Amina Oyagbola
Founder/Chairperson
Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR)
November 27, 2021.
