FBNBank has reaffirmed its commitment to support gender parity both at the workplace and outside it by ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion receive focus with the objective of eliminating the biases which undermine the progress of women.

This was communicated by the Bank as part of its celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD 2022) under the theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” and call-to-action, “#BreakTheBais”, at a forum organised by the FBNBank Women Network (FWN).

Delivering the welcome address, Grace Isaac-Aryee, the Chairperson of the FWN said, “for us at FBNBank, the celebration of International Women’s Day is the acknowledgement of the challenges that women face at the workplace and the society in general and our commitment to contribute in a very significant way to break down the barriers that so undermine us. Today’s event is key for our agenda and is a core part of our objectives and we are taking this opportunity to reflect, pause and renew our efforts in driving the agenda.”

Over the years, FBNBank has through its FWN, a platform driven an agenda of promoting access to equal opportunities for women at the workplace. The FWN offers female employees capacity building and personal development through its six pillars; Career Management, Network Programmes/Projects & Events, Counselling-Support-Welfare, Financial Planning & Empowerment, Mentoring-Coaching-Sponsoring and Personal Branding. In line with these, the FWN invited two guest speakers to share their experiences with the employees in order to help them build their capabilities.

Speaking on the topic, “How women can leverage the changing organisational culture and overcome what holds us back,” Isabel Boaten, Managing Partner at AB & David, advised the female employees of the Bank to take advantage of the growing empowerment culture for women in corporate organisations by responding positively to opportunities that come their way. She mentioned the need for competence, good knowledge of their industry and general professional environment in addition to being commercially aware and to have an entrepreneurial mindset as very important. She also advised the ladies to be “trustworthy, credible and visible.”

The second speaker, Akua Owusu-Nartey, Managing Director of Ogilvy Africa spoke on the
topic, “Breaking the bias, changing the narrative.” Akua shared her experiences with the audience and stressed the need for the ladies to do away with biases which she explained were mostly founded on the personal experiences of other people. She explained that cultural and media stereotypes have played a key role in mounting barriers to the advancement of women and urged the ladies to focus on developing themselves in order to take advantage of opportunities available.

The Bank’s Managing Director, Victor Yaw Asante stated in the keynote address that, “What we need to focus on is doing away with discrimination against women anywhere it exists and embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. We want to work together with our women to forge a clear path to break the bias against them. We would create more opportunities in leadership roles. The truth of the matter is that this would not be handed on a silver platter but would be response to effort made in the right direction. Support and mentorship are key here. We can only try as much, so our ladies must also want it. You must do your part of the bargain and we would give you the necessary support. That is the commitment I make together with the whole executive management team.”

The activities under the event’s programme were rounded up with remarks from two female Non-Executive Directors of FBNBank, Ms. Rosie Ebe-Arthur and Mrs. Hannah Brenda Amoateng who both urged the ladies to position themselves favourably to be able to move on up in their careers. They advised those up the corporate ladder to be willing to help the other ladies in the lower rungs to climb up. The attendees at the event were mostly the Bank’s female employees supported by executive and management staff.

FBNBank Ghana Limited is a member of the First Bank of Nigeria Limited Group. The Bank has 21 branches and 2 agencies in Ghana with almost 500 staff and offers universal banking services to individuals and businesses. FBNBank Ghana Limited has been in the business of banking for over 25 years in Ghana and is part of the trade hub that has grown economies for over 127 years across Africa, Europe and China.