International Women’s Day is celebrated across the world on March 8. The month of March is also dedicated to the celebration of women’s achievements and spotlighting focal points relevant to the promotion of the fifth Sustainable Development Goal, gender equality. The 2024 International Women’s Day theme, ‘Inspire Inclusion’, in addition to celebrating significant accomplishments in the women empowerment and gender equality movement across the world, focused on the need to adopt and promote inclusion across all segments of society.

While significant progress has been made so far, there remains some unfinished business in reducing the global gender gap. The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap 2023 Report shows that it would take about 131 years to close the gap across all fields of human endeavour. This is why the 2024 International Women’s Day theme is important. The theme is a call to action on the immediate necessity of developing a world where women of all ages, fields and socio-economic standing can feel valued, included and empowered to reach their full potential.

Wema Bank remains committed to its intentional drive to promote diversity, equity and inclusion towards the attainment of gender equality and women empowerment across all sectors of the economy and society at large. This is fully evidenced by the bank’s alignment with the United Nations Women Empowerment Principles and the Wema Bank Women Empowerment and Financial Inclusion Strategy which cuts across three major segments namely: Workplace engagement, community impact, and marketplace empowerment.

Wema Bank’s drive for women’s empowerment starts from within. Over 2500 female employees bank-wide are empowered through initiatives led by the Wema Women Network, the bank’s internal structure designed to promote interaction, develop initiatives and organise activities that empower, nurture and inspire women to thrive in their career and personal lives. The Wema Women Network champions activities that increase and improve the visibility, participation, skills and knowledge of women bank-wide. These unique activities range from networking sessions, capacity development initiatives, leadership webinars and book reviews to avenues for mentorship through the Big Sister Project.

Another major milestone achieved in promoting women’s inclusion in the bank was the appointment of the first female chairperson of Wema Bank, Dr Oluwayemisi Olorunshola, in June 2023. This further reflects the bank’s commitment to the UN-WEP.

Women empowerment is a vital component of the bank’s corporate social investment initiatives for sustained impact, development and growth. Women in diverse communities across Nigeria have benefitted from various community-focused initiatives championed by Wema Bank, such as the provision of grants and seed funding to women-owned MSMEs across the country, free breast scans and mammograms for over 1000 women in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and a host of other initiatives. Women across different communities are also trained on environmental awareness and supported through the provision of free health insurance premiums in exchange for recyclables trading, in partnership with SoSo Care. Other areas of community-focused impact include the donation of over 1500 mosquito nets and training on environmental clean-up and advocacy to beneficiaries across diverse communities in Lagos including Mosquito Village, Idi-Araba Community and Oworonshoki amongst others.

Beyond the Wema Women Network, Wema Bank founded SARA by Wema, a female-focused community designed to help the bank’s female customers access viable opportunities and resources needed for their personal and professional success. Through SARA, over N58.9bn has been disbursed in uncollateralised loan facilities for women-owned MSMEs across the country. This is coupled with the SARA Health Plan for female beneficiaries as well as the provision of free health screenings for over 2000 women in 2023. SARA by Wema also provides these women-owned MSMEs with access to market opportunities with over 45,000 women businesses impacted through physical and online trade fairs in 2023. The SARA proposition furthermore provides learning facilities for women through digital skills training, financial literacy series and skill acquisition programmes with over 500,000 women reached.

The continued drive for women empowerment has led to the bank’s prolific partnerships with various arms of the Nigerian government for growth and far-reaching impact. Wema Bank is in collaboration with the Ministry of Women Affairs to empower 20 million women by 2026. In addition, the FGN-ALAT Skillnovation Programme, launched in partnership with the Federal Government (through the Office of the Vice President) and the NYSC-ALAT Accelerator Programme launched in partnership with the National Youth Service Corps and Microsoft, in 2023, both feature a strong focus on women empowerment and inclusion. The FGN-ALAT Digital Skillnovation Programme is set to equip two million youth and one million MSMEs with relevant digital, employability and business management skills. The FGN-ALAT Digital Hubs through which the programme will be executed in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, will serve as innovation centres equipped with world-class technology and resources to foster learning, ideation and growth. The NYSC-ALAT Accelerator Programme on the other hand has been designed to empower graduates with key skills and resources to transition seamlessly into the labour market. Both of these programmes have been opened to both men and women across Nigeria.

In line with the bank’s commitment to the UN-WEP Principle 5, Enterprise Development, Supply Chain & Marketing Practices, priority focus is placed on incorporating more female-owned businesses in the bank’s supply chain with the annual Vendors Forum conducted to sensitise the bank’s vendors to the provisions of the UN-WEP and the need for enhanced adoption of sustainable business practices.

The Wema Bank Women Empowerment and Inclusion Strategy has an impact count of over three million women across Nigeria so far. This will be sustained and built upon for the inclusion of more female beneficiaries across the workplace engagement, community impact and marketplace empowerment segments in the coming months.

As part of our corporate commitment to promoting women, Wema Bank participates in the global International Women’s Day commemorations annually. The first Wema Bank International Women’s Day Conference was held in 2023 to industry-acclaimed success. The 2024 edition of the Wema Bank International Women’s Day commemoration was a week-long event with the topic “EmpowHERment Through Finance”, featuring financial literacy training for women MSMEs in collaboration with finance author, Arese Ugwu; recognition of supportive male figures within the bank through the Wema Bank He For She Awards; the training of 225 female students at Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School in a mentorship and vision board creation session by the Wema Women Network.

These week-long commemorative activities culminated in the Wema Bank International Women’s Day 2024 Conference which took place in Lagos on Friday, March 8, 2024, with industry leaders and distinguished members of the government, corporate, business and creative spheres in attendance and strong virtual representation across social media platforms. The conference has been acknowledged as the largest commemorative event across the Nigerian banking sector.

The bank’s strides in promoting women and inspiring inclusion internally and externally were aptly recognised by the first female Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in her keynote address at this 2024 edition of the Wema Bank International Women’s Day Conference. She further recognised Wema Bank’s impact in simultaneously championing women empowerment through the SARA proposition, promoting women in tech and MSME engagement. In her words, “Targeting micro, medium and small enterprises is also akin to targeting women since most MSMEs are owned or operated by female entrepreneurs.” She urged the bank to keep up the good work and continue the drive to promote women through women-focused initiatives via SARA and the Wema Women Network.

The conference led the industry discourse on the theme, ‘Inspire Inclusion’ through insightful panel discussions with seasoned and accomplished women across sectors who are exemplary in inspiring inclusion. These women provided profound insights and useful recommendations on the importance of the 2024 International Women’s Day theme, Wema Bank’s topic, “EmpoeHERment Through Finance”, and key steps to take towards the achievement of a more inclusive society where women are valued as powerful drivers of change and socio-economic development. Some excerpts from the panel sessions are succinctly summarised:

President of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria, Dr Pamela Ajayi, stated in her panel session that inclusive leadership goes beyond diversity, and includes enabling women to feel valued and supported towards the achievement of their full potential. The Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce, Trade and Investment, Ms Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, also emphasised the need for organisations and government institutions to be intentionally inclusive. Organisational and institutional policies focused on solving the challenges faced by women must be prioritised, communicated and implemented to ensure a genuinely inclusive workplace that fosters women empowerment and development.

The Commissioner for Transportation in Anambra State, Ms Patricia Igwebuike, remarked that most women shrink away from great opportunities due to imposter syndrome and the fear of failure. It is important for women to not only call for opportunities for growth but to embrace those opportunities when they arise instead of hiding behind the cloak of excuses and fear. Be determined to sit at the table and contribute to the promotion of policies, regulations and initiatives that will lead to the uplift, growth and development of other women.

The Executive Director of MTN Foundation, Ms Odunayo Sanya, stated that inclusive leadership is an environment that encourages everyone to be heard without discrimination. At the centre of this lies a sense of purpose. Inclusive leadership is geared toward providing an enabling avenue for people to recognise their objectives for living and fulfil them without restrictions based on gender, age or other limiting factors.

Advocacy becomes easier on the back of proven results. Inspiring inclusion includes highlighting the positives, added values and benefits of inclusion through the demonstration of result-oriented outcomes. Ms Adenike Macaulay, the Chief Executive Officer of Wakanow, advised women in leadership to contribute towards efforts to build an inclusive organisation by producing positive, verifiable results. This will not only provide positive models for future generations of women but also make it easier for their voices to be heard and respected in decision-making processes across all levels.

The Wema Bank International Women’s Day Conference 2024 also featured the recognition and graduation of the beneficiaries of the Wema Women Network’s Big Sister Project. This project was launched at the Wema Bank International Women’s Day Conference in 2023 to provide mentorship opportunities and avenues for female employees across the bank. To crown the Wema Bank International Women’s Day 2024 Conference, Wema Bank launched the SHE EMPOWERS HER Award by SARA, to recognise and celebrate leading women who have made an indelible impact on society and have been instrumental in uplifting other women across diverse sectors.

In conclusion, it is essential to reiterate that inclusion goes beyond just “giving women a seat at the table.” True inclusion is about actively inspiring and encouraging women to participate, share their voices, and take on leadership opportunities to benefit their immediate societies and the world at large. Wema Bank, under the leadership of the Number 1 He For She for Life Ambassador, the MD/CEO, Mr Moruf Oseni, remains dedicated to inspiring inclusion and providing sustainable opportunities for women to thrive through our policies, initiatives and services for continued growth and development across the board.