FirstBank of Nigeria Limited has facilitated the induction of 52 women from its First Women Network (FWN) into associate members of Women in Management, Business, and Public Service (WimBiz).
FWN is an initiative that seeks to address the gender gap and increase the participation of women at senior and executive levels within First Bank.
While for the past 21 years, WimBiz has been dedicated to implementing initiatives that motivate, enable, and promote the increased presence of women in leadership roles within both public and private sector entities, the non-profit organisation aims to inspire and empower women to take on influential positions.
Speaking at the induction ceremony of the 52 new associates, group executive, Transaction Banking and Chairman, First Women Network, Olaitan Martins said, FirstBank is committed to empowering women in their workplace succeed.
According to Martin, “as FirstBank inducts ladies into WIMBIZ, the essence of this is to empower women and involve them in associations in the organisation. At the bank, we are putting on a deliberate effort at empowering women and putting our women in leadership. So we want to see more women in leadership positions, we want to be able to pull up women to take up roles that are typically stereotyped for men.
“So, this is one of the initiatives, and what we are doing is to involve a woman in other associations both local and international such as WIMBIZ where our people can connect, be inspired, and get motivated by what other women are doing in the society.
“FirstBank has been supporting WIMBIZ for 21 years and part of our desire in the bank is to ensure that women aspire to top leadership positions. So beyond today’s events, our desire has always been to see associations that will empower women and will encourage men to take positions to be brave and courageous to take positions.”
WIMBIZ currently has 1874 associate members and FirstBank has been supporting the organisation consistently since its inception in 2002. Also FirstBank was certified as a corporate member at the induction.
On her part, the executive director, WIMBIZ, Ms. Hansatu Adegbite said: “our mission is simply to inspire and empower women to attain leadership positions, in business management and public service.
“We also have a vision and it is simply to be that catalyst that engages the status and influence of women and their contribution to nation-building.”
Furthermore speaking at the induction, the executive director, Treasury, and International Banking, Ini Ebong, said: “women deserve a voice and women deserve to be in corporate Nigeria. We need more women in business, and we need more women in government, and that is what our FWN tries to do which is to have our own take charge of their careers, thrive and have our women in corporate Nigeria have a voice
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