IBEDC reiterates commitment to gender equality at 2022 DISCO for Women conference

The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) has reiterated its commitment to gender equality in its workforce as it plans to improve the gender mix for female employees to at least 20 per cent in the short term and increase that number in the coming years.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, IBEDC, Kingsley Achife, said this at the 2022 Discussing Issues Surrounding Career Opportunities (DISCO) for Women Conference in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which took place at the University of Ibadan International Conference Centre on Thursday with the theme, ‘Breaking the Glass Ceiling.’

Achife, who was represented by the Chief Business Transformation Strategy Officer, IBEDC, Iranola Ayodeji, said that IBEDC pioneered the change in the Nigerian power sector by adopting gender-friendly policies, programmes and growth strategies.

“IBEDC has plans to improve the gender mix for female employees to at least 20 per cent in the short term and then scale up as time goes by.

“Statistics have shown that, on average, women in leadership roles perform better than their male counterparts in strategic decision making. The gut feeling and instinct that women are known for cannot be overshadowed by cold hard facts and figures that male managers tend to base their decision on.

“For so long a period, the Nigerian Power industry has been seen as the domain of the male gender. This fact is even buttressed by the terminologies used to identify roles in the industry. However, I am pleased to inform you that IBEDC has changed the narrative by being the first Disco to adopt more gender-friendly nomenclatures such as line workers.

“IBEDC is at the forefront of gender equality in the power sector in Nigeria and the company sees engendering as one of its main growth strategies in the medium and long term. It is in view of this that IBEDC partnered with USAID to push the engendering agenda across the power sector in Nigeria and beyond,” Ayodeji said.

In her opening speech, the Chief Human Resources Officer, Mrs Ehi Obaseki, said that a country’s economic power is directly related to how economically empowered her women are.

Obaseki said, “There is now ample economic evidence that a country’s economic prospects are conditioned by how engaged women are in the workforce, how able they engage in the boardroom and how they thrive.

“It is not lost on us that the country is still suffering from very strong and outdated attitudes and stereotypes towards differences in genders and the rights of men and women in Nigeria. Despite decades of progressive efforts, there is still a great deal of inequalities in workplaces across the country.

“Last year, the reintroduced gender equality bill was suspended. This will be the third time that the consideration and passage of the gender equality bill is frustrated. Despite and in spite of this, we are determined to create the best utility company to work with for all genders of male and female.

In recent years, IBEDC engendering worked to ensure our men and women receive equal treatment in terms of opportunities for training, promotion, fair hearing, and protection from any form of harassment. Gender equality in the workplace is one of the leading topics in the modern business world so it is essential.”

The keynote speaker and Executive Director, EZ37 Solutions Ltd., a life coaching outfit, Patricia Akinlotan, noted that humans are shaped by a number of factors such as gender, culture, religion, socio-economic status, peers and parents which can become a limitation.

Akinlotan said optimising one’s potential and career development starts from a sense of self-awareness, clarity of purpose, clarity of where one spends one’s energy and building meaningful relationships through conversation, being open to change, gain experiences while ditching titles and mentorship.

While urging women to rise above limitations and factors, Akinlotan said, “Your personal identity can affect your professional identity. You need to take time to understand who you are and what you need to focus on. You need to be present in the environment you want to operate in. No matter where you are in your life, you have control of where you focus your energy.”

Aline Shahimi, a 14-year-old student of Ibadan International College, said sexist stereotypes that plague the Nigerian society and affect the lives and career choices of Nigerians are entrenched by a culture of assumed gender-appropriate roles in the family and must be tackled from there.

“In today’s society, even things as simple as children’s play items have been gendered and separated often through the use of colours – pink for girls and blue for boys.

“In order to reach gender equality and break harmful stereotypes surrounding women, we must detach ourselves from the harmful parts of our culture while sticking only to the parts that make us unique.

“In the Nigerian culture and many other African and Asian cultures, the man is considered the head of the house and his son his successor regardless of age. Instead of clinging to this belief, let go of it. Allow equality in the house, split decision making between both partners regardless of their gender but based solely on what each individual is good at,” Ms Shahimi said.

While speaking on wellness, Angela Olanrenwaju, the Head of Branding and Corporate Communications, urged the participants to take care of their physical and mental wellness through proper dieting, exercise, etc., as a lack of these would affect their input in the workplace.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE