Women in Corporate Leadership in Africa

Women in the financial services industry make up about 30% of the workforce at the senior management level in Africa. This is bested only by the healthcare and TMT (Telecoms, Media and Technology) industries which have higher representations of 39% and 33% respectively according to a McKinsey study. Southern and East African countries outperform their peers from other regions in senior management gender inclusion. Moving from senior management to the board level, the level of representation drops. The average board representation of females in Africa is 14%. Southern Africa has the highest representation with 20% while West Africa has the second lowest participation rate of 11%. The percentage of women on boards in Nigeria as at August 2020 stood at 20%, well above the world average of 17%, African average of 14% and West African average of 11%. Progress is surely being made but there is clearly still a huge gap to fill.

The Effect of Gender Diverse Corporate Leadership 

Numerous studies including one recently carried out by McKinsey show that organizations with more gender diversity are about 30% more likely to experience above-average profitability. Gender diversity is of great benefit to any organization, having a significant positive impact on bottom line. Gender diversity in corporate leadership positions also results in more social sensitivity when solving problems, increased chances of effectiveness due to better understanding of stakeholders' needs (a large portion of whom are women), and a trickle-down egalitarian effect on the rest of the organization.

Financial Inclusion

Another issue to consider is financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is defined as the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. Women face unique obstacles in accessing financial services especially in the African markets. According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), close to 80% of women-owned businesses with credit needs are either underserved or unserved. This $1.7 trillion funding gap if met, would provide an additional $330 billion in revenue to the global economy. From an impact perspective, an increase in financial inclusion can lead to higher economic growth as well as lower income inequality.

The theme of 2021’s International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge and challenge the above-described status quo is exactly what Toyin F. Sanni (TFS) and her team at the Emerging Africa Capital Group (EACG) have chosen to do. In the Nigerian and African predominantly male-led financial services industry, EACG is clearly distinguishing itself.

The Emerging Africa Group Story

The Emerging Africa Group consists of Emerging Africa Capital Limited (EACL)- the parent company, EAC Trustees Limited (EACT), EAC Advisory Limited (EACA), Emerging Africa Asset Management Limited (EAAML), and Emerging Africa Capacity Building (EACB).

In 2019, EACL signed the Gender Diversity Charter of the Women Working for Change (an initiative of the AFRICA CEO FORUM). The charter apart from ensuring fairness and justice, is also a common sense move that aims to bring better corporate performance and profitability leading to greater prosperity for African economies. The signatories of this Charter commit to striving to fulfil the following principles:

·       Gender-diverse recruitment

·       Equal pay

·       Gender-diverse management and executive committees

·       Gender-balanced boards

In keeping with the charter, the Emerging Africa group has distinguished itself as a women owned and women led group and by its contributions to gender empowerment in Africa.

• Over 55% shareholding group-wide is in female hands
• Both the Group Chairman and Group CEO are women.
• 75% of Emerging Africa Boards are chaired by women
• 60% of Businesses Group-wide are headed by women CEOs
• 64% of management positions group-wide are headed by women
• 55% of Staff are women
• 44% of Total Board Composition is made up of women

Emerging Africa Asset Management (EAAML) has a board comprising 60% of its members as women including its CEO - Ms Ada Ijara, its Chairman, Mrs Toyin Sanni and NED, Mrs Oghogho Osula. On the 27th of January, 2021, EAAML launched the Emerging Africa Balanced Diversity Fund, an innovative mutual fund which invests in securities of companies with proven commitment to gender diversity through significant representation of women on their boards, management, and staff as well as through the offering of products and services which enhance the economic inclusion of women.

Emerging Africa Capacity Building (EACB) is also led by women, starting with its CEO Mrs Abimbola Shopeju and other key personnel. EACB provides training and mentorship in technical and soft skills for senior executives, finance sector professionals, young professionals, mid-level employees and early-stage entrepreneurs. EACB particularly focuses on women seeking to develop their leadership skills as there is currently a clear gender imbalance in this area, but will not do so to the exclusion of men. EACB’s flagship initiative is the Women Who Lead (WWL) Conference designed to guide upcoming female entrepreneurs and working professionals in successfully manoeuvring their careers. WWL has had over 6,000 attendees till date and featured renowned Speakers such as Chief Dr Mrs. Onikepo Akande OON, CON and Toyin Sanni, Group Chairman & Group CEO respectively of the Emerging Africa Group, Arunma Oteh OON , Scholar at Oxford University Said Business School, Ibukun Awosika, Chairman First Bank Group, Dionne Searcey of the New York Times, Tonye Cole, Co-Founder of the Sahara Group, Valentine Ozigbo, former President Transcorp Group, Peace Hyde of Forbes Africa and Lamia Merzouki of the Casablanca Finance City. EACB will shortly be launching a Mentorship program for women seeking to join the C-Suite.

Emerging Africa Capital also runs its SME funding desk which is particularly interested in providing finance for female led businesses and consequently contributing to closure of the financial inclusion gender gap within the continent. 

Emerging Africa Group Leadership

 Chief Dr. (Mrs.) Nike Akande OON, CON- Group Chairman

Chief Dr. (Mrs.) Nike Akande OON, CON, is a prominent Industrialist and Investment Expert, having participated in a number of International Trade and Investment fora both Overseas and in Nigeria.

She is a Two-time Minister of Industry of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and is the immediate past President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). Under her leadership, LCCI led the promotion, of private and public initiatives aimed at improving trade, industry, commerce and agriculture. She is an author of many outstanding publications and academic papers.

 Toyin F. Sanni- Group Chief Executive Officer

Toyin Sanni is Founder and CEO of the Emerging Africa Capital Group, Co-Founder of the Africa Investment Roundtable as well as Board Chairman at Emerging Africa Asset Management Limited. Toyin sits on several boards and committees including Transnational Corporation Plc, the Off Grid Energy Fund - Financing Energy Inclusion (OGEF-FEI) sponsored by the AfDB and other International Development Finance Institutions, NEPAD Business Group Nigeria and the Pearl Awards Governance Board. 

She is also the Founder and Chairperson for the Women in Finance Nigeria Network and Founder, WIFNG UK. Toyin was declared the All-African Business Woman of the year 2017 by CNBC Africa, & Nigeria's CEO of the Year 2017 by Pearl Awards. In 2020, she won the Africa Influencer (CEO) Award by Tech Times Africa. Toyin recently co-founded the Africa Investment Roundtable (AiR), an initiative which is part-sponsored by the Emerging Africa group. AiR is a research-based thought leadership platform aimed at providing an in-depth examination of the African investment landscape launched in January 2021 by Toyin F. Sanni and Ms Arunma Oteh OON (an academic scholar at University of Oxford who was previously Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank and prior to that Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria and Group Vice President and Group Treasurer of the African Development Bank Group amongst other roles).

Unique Positioning of the Emerging Africa Group

African companies are beginning to position themselves to meet the continent's financing and investment needs especially in the light of AfCFTA. Emerging Africa stands out from the crowd due to its commitment to solving Africa’s financing and investment challenges with its commitment to deepening financial inclusion and solving infrastructure problems for sub-nationals and municipalities, SMEs and women-owned businesses. With a commitment to raising USD1Billion over a 5 year period, it has so far helped to raise USD220m within the first two years of this plan. We remain committed to this goal and expect to accelerate its implementation over the next three years.

Signed

Toyin F Sanni

GCEO

Sources:

 https://hbr.org/2019/03/when-and-why-diversity-improves-your-boards-performance#

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-21/female-board-representation-shows-nigeria-beats-world-average#:~:text=Female%20Board%20Positions%20Shows%20Nigeria%20Beats%20World%20Average,-By&text=At%20least%20one%20in%20five,for%20female%20representation%20on%20boards. 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01351/full

https://www.theafricareport.com/43098/global-gdp-could-rise-by-3-if-gender-disparity-gap-is-closed/