Dr Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank Nigeria, has restated the bank’s commitment to continue promoting an enabling environment for women to thrive and reach their maximum career potential.
Adeduntan said this during the maiden anniversary celebration of FirstBank Women Network and International Women’s Day on Saturday in Lagos.
He noted that FirstBank Women Network was one of the bank’s initiatives created to ensure equal opportunities for women in the workplace.
According to him, it is also to help them leverage the opportunities presented by enabling them to contribute even more if given the necessary strategic support and an intentionally enabling environment.
“FirstBank recognises the fact that gender parity is an essential factor for influencing the advancement of institutions, economies and societies, hence its commitment to promoting same and equipping women for senior and executive management positions.
“Last year, we launched this network on International Women’s Day. This is so because the activities of the Network are at par with the essence of the International Women’s Day celebration.
“Marking International Women’s Day is significant because it creates the opportunity to recognise and celebrate the social, cultural, political and economic achievements of women across the globe,” he said.
Adeduntan said the global focus of the celebration included equality, total respect, appreciation and love toward women for their achievements and invaluable contributions to human growth and development.
He noted that the emphasis of the celebration brought to fore the fact that an equal world was an enabled world, thus stressed that everyone was charged with the responsibility to promoting a gender equal world.
“FirstBank is already at it; with key positions occupied by women, the position of the Board Chairman is one good example,” he said.
Adeduntan added that recent appointments in the bank in the last year had seen more women in leadership positions, which included Group Executive, Corporate Banking Group, Energy & Infrastructure and Group Head, Banking Operations & Services, among others.
He reiterated the bank’s commitment to advancing the workspace for more women to thrive and reach their maximum potentials.
“I therefore urge everyone of us present, male and female, to make a conscious effort to create an enabling world by promoting a gender-equal world,” Adeduntan said.
Also, Ms Rosie Ebe-Arthur, Group Head, Human Capital Management Development,
FirstBank, said FirstBank Women Network was created to empower FirstBank women to achieve more.
“We wanted it to be a project that is merit driven and for women in FirstBank to grow and attain leadership positions and contribute more to the sustainability, strategy development and building of the bank,” Ebe-Arthur said.
Commenting, Mrs Ibukun Awosika, Chairman, FirstBank of Nigeria, commended the group’s initiative and urged them to remain focused as they strove for gender equality within the workforce.
