Women represent 50 per cent of my personal team ― Finance Minister

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3 years ago

Zainab Ahmed, Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said that women represent 50 per cent of her personal team, and has sought to ensure women are well represented on committee assignments.

Mrs Ahmed stated this in her speech at the International Professional Women Conference, with the theme:
“The Roles of Professional Women in Nation Building” held Thursday, in Abuja.

Declaring open the inaugural edition of the conference, organised by the Society of Women in Taxation, a body representing the female members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation in Nigeria (CITN), Mrs Ahmed, told her audience that she has been contributing to promoting gender equality, and urged others to do same.

She said: “In my position as the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, women represent 50 per cent of my personal team.

“On committee assignments, I have also sought to ensure women are well represented and take a lead in driving the discussions that lead to better policymaking.

“As an example, in the development of the Finance Acts, we have taken active steps to ensure that the top female tax professionals in Nigeria are included as part of the core team of the Fiscal Policy Reform Committee (FPRC).

“This has ensured that issues that are of importance to women and children are elevated in the formulation of new tax laws and the review of extant laws.

“I state these achievements not to blow my own trumpet as there is so much more I can do, but to encourage all of us to be deliberate in our efforts to give more voice to women in leadership roles across all spheres of society.”

Mrs Ahmed noted that it is imperative that women move beyond rhetoric to action in order can create a better world for future generations.

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“I was recently honoured with a seat on the World Bank Group’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, and I view this as a huge responsibility and an opportunity to work at the global level to elevate the voices of women, particularly those from the Global South, in our march towards eradicating poverty and promoting inclusive growth.

“We are all placed in positions where we can make an important contribution to promoting gender equality and so I encourage all of us to be courageous and not baulk at opportunities to make our voices heard” Mrs Ahmed further stated.

She encouraged all women attending the conference, as well as the male allies, to consider the promotion of increased opportunities for women in leadership roles in the workplace as a collective task, stressing that “it is our collective responsibility to break the glass ceiling for all women”.

The Finance Minister pointed out that the Economic Research and Policy Management Department of the Ministry represents women on the Financial Literacy Working Group which is working assiduously to address the barriers that have created a financial inclusion gap between men and women.

Also, she noted that the Ministry is taking the lead on promoting gender-responsive budgeting as defined by the United Nations Development Programme, which entails the “analysis of the entire budget through a gender lens to identify gender-differential impacts and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments. By so doing, we increase accountability and make the budget process more transparent, leading to equitable outcomes for men and women.

“We have also created a gender desk for each sector department in the Ministry to ensure that gender is mainstreamed in all our projects and interventions.”

She noted that under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the government has developed and is supporting targeted interventions in the following key areas: “Access to financing and capacity building for women-owned businesses, particularly MSMEs through the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), the MSME Survival Fund and the Women Empowerment Fund; Boosting financial inclusion and financial literacy amongst women and girls, particularly since women’s financial inclusion is a key driver of inclusive and sustainable development; Improving human capital development outcomes for women and girls through targeted government spending in line with Government priorities in key sectors including health and education;

Ensuring that our fiscal policies and public financial management processes are more gender-sensitive, particularly in the areas of budgeting, implementation, and M&E; Ensuring equal access to information, and Closing the digital gender gap.”

She affirmed, however, that statistics show that women are not proportionately represented in leadership roles in government and the corporate world.

Mrs Ahmed charged the participants to come up with measurable results from the discussions at the conference as women should be principal contributors to national development since they represent about half of the global population.

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Women represent 50 per cent of my personal team ― Finance Minister