Strive for top positions - Women in rural banking urged
Women in Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) have been encouraged to be diligent and steadfast in their quest to navigate the professional and leadership terrain.
Advertisement
Doing this, the association said, would ensure massive women participation at top leadership positions within the rural banking industry.
The Executive Director of the Association of Rural Banks Ghana, Comfort Owusu, gave the advice at the inauguration of ARB Ladies’ Association and the maiden ARB National Women’s Conference in Sunyani, the Bono Regional capital.
The conference was celebrated on the theme: ‘Women in Sustainable Rural Banking Business for Economic Growth’.
There are only eight female Chief Executive Officers (CEO) out of the 147 RCBs across the country which is woefully inadequate as women’s presence at top positions could spur the rural banking industry to much greater heights.
Conference
Highlighting the objectives of the conference Mrs Owusu said it would promote networking, professional growth and development of ladies in the rural banking industry.
Also, it provided a platform to share experiences for the development of skills in leadership to foster women leadership in the Rural Banking industry, including providing a unique forum for collaboration and knowledge sharing and brainstorming to promote the interests of women in the RCB ecosystem as well as help to promote the rural banking brand through gender-based activities.
The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi, reiterated that judging by the present trajectory of development, the time was ripe for women to be actively involved in the development of society, particularly in the area described to be male dominated.
Other Trending Stories
She said it was not going to be by affirmative action but as a woman one should understand what it took to become the CEO as well as occupying any top managerial position in the organisation or on the board.
She emphasised that women could do this through academic pursuit, self-development or leadership training to take up challenging corporate leadership responsibilities.
The Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu-Banahene, also urged the RCBs to review their policies and processes for recruitment and promotion to ensure that well deserving women got a fair chance to get into top leadership positions.
“Shareholders must consciously ensure gender equality in board and top management composition in order to reap the benefits that women leaders bring to the table.
Background
Mrs Owusu, in a brief history to the formation of the ladies’ association, noted that a few years after joining the Association of Rural Banks (ARB) Ghana, she noticed that very few women attended training programmes.
She, therefore, submitted a proposal to the then Director of ARB to ascertain the cause of this occurrence.
Unfortunately, her proposal was not met with the enthusiasm and organisational will to pursue this agenda.
Nonetheless, she did not give up but personally reached out to the ladies in the rural and community banks and after several engagements, the need to help develop and empower female staff became even more apparent and urgent.
Plans were thus put in place to establish an association which was to empower ladies in the rural banking sector and hence the maiden conference to motivate women to surmount all challenges with regard to reaching top leadership positions.