The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) have applauded Lafarge Africa Plc, a leading solutions provider in the construction industry, for emerging as one of the five top-performing companies blurring the gap in gender roles and encouraging equality and diversity within its ranks.
The recognition of Lafarge Africa comes on the heels of the recent IFC Gender Equality study, conducted in partnership with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) to assess gender gaps at 30 leading companies listed on NGX.
Speaking during the virtual launch of the Nigeria2Equal (N2E) Peer Learning Platform and Gender Gap Assessment Report last Friday, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NGX Group, Mr Oscar N. Onyema, said the first multi-stakeholder country project focused on reducing gender gaps in Nigeria’s private sector companies, adding that Nigeria2Equal was unique in its design to ensure a quantitative approach to improving gender equality amongst the participating companies through careful research.
“The program’s approach to celebrating industry best practices and promoting the application of gender-smart solutions at the firm and sector level is best in class and will be celebrated for years to come,” he said.
Lafarge Africa’s Country Chief Executive Officer, Mr Khaled El Dokani, represented by Communications, Public Affairs & Sustainable Development Director, Mrs Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, spoke on the Business Case for Achieving Gender Parity in Nigeria: From the CEO’s Perspective.
He said: We are extremely delighted for this recognition. At Lafarge, we are further driven by narrowing the gap which is a particular nuance in the manufacturing sector. To underscore this, we have set ambitious diversity and inclusion targets.
“We have also put frameworks in place for the achievement of these targets such as female to male employment ratio, especially in core production and operations. We have also adopted a bottom-up approach to further bridge this gap through some of our social impact programs like the Technical Skills Development Programme and the female truck drivers’ program of the Lafarge Driving Institute. Of course, being a signatory to the Nigeria2Equal Programme affords us greater opportunities to achieve set targets.’
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