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A former Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr (Mrs). Omobola Johnson, has listed some factors that could help women reach the top of their careers.
The former minister, who spoke on the theme of ‘Winning through Inclusion’ at the third edition of the Sterling Leadership Series (SLS) in Lagos recently said women can get to the top through mentorship, role modelling, assertiveness, confidence building and networking, among others. While urging women to quickly adopt the tactics she outlined for better representation, Mrs Johnson said men are not likely to concede leadership positions to women in a friendly manner because lots of discriminatory practices exist in the corporate world so women would have to fight, kick and, if necessary, bite to get to the top.
According to her, available statistics show that the number of women in leadership positions in the political and corporate world was dwindling. She noted that while she was in government, women had about 30 per cent representation but the percentage has dropped to about 10 per cent now while there are still fewer women at the board level in companies.
Mrs Johnson, who is a co-founder of Women in Business (WIMBIZ), commended Sterling Bank for its high level of gender inclusion. She said available statistics show that when women are involved in leadership positions, there is improved performance because there is better representation in decision-making.
She also advocated policies that would support maternal and childbirth responsibilities among women because, besides women having responsibilities outside the workplace, it is important to have a workplace that represents the larger society.
In his opening remarks, the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, explained that the leadership series has the objective of inspiring the bank to do things that are memorable and in order to do so, it is necessary to sit with people who have done memorable things.
Suleiman said the maiden leadership series was headlined by Professor Wole Soyinka while the Managing Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mr. Yaw Nsarkoh, was the guest speaker at the second edition.
Johnson who also doubles as the Chairman of Custodian Investment Plc enjoined the Federal Government not to regulate technology companies such as the Fintechs like other companies in order not to kill them because they can scale very fast.
She urged the government to listen and engage with citizens because technology is helping citizens to keep governments on their toes across the world, citing instances like the recent protest in Cameroon and the need to learn from what happened in Ukraine, Italy and the US where the electorates voted against the established order.
