Delivering her keynote address, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State commended the management and staff of the NSE for investing their time and resources in advancing gender equality and celebrating women.
She stated that “women in Nigeria are still under one form of discrimination or the other. Our laws still have provisions that discriminate against women. Our political, business and work environment are deliberately made unconducive for women. Many successful women in the area of politics, business and investment, education, entertainment and the like had to work extra hard to achieve their objectives.
“Therefore, I wish to urge the business and investment community in Nigeria to utilize every opportunity such as presented by this symposium to seriously do some introspection and come up with useful suggestions to the nation on how to harness the innate capabilities of women by allowing them to flourish just like their male counterpart”.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
A key component of the symposium was the signing of the Women Empowerment Principles by Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, NSE where he noted that, “private sector plays an essential and pivotal role in promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment all around the world. Until women are treated as equal members of society, politically, economically and socially, our nation won’t reach its full potential.
“At The Nigerian Stock Exchange, 33 per cent of our workforce is women and we are committed to improving the figure. I urge all organisations to step it up for gender equality”, said Onyema.
The symposium featured panel discussions and had eminent leaders such as Ms. Tinu Awe; Dr. Lucy Newman, Managing Director/CEO of Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), Lagos; Mrs. Abimbola Ibironke Akeredolu (S.A.N), immediate past Attorney General of Ogun State and Mrs. Ope Wemi Jones, Group Head, Inclusive Banking, Access Bank Plc.
