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AfDB Urges Action To Close Boardroom Gender Gap In Africa

AfDB Urges Action To Close Boardroom Gender Gap In Africa

From The Guardian

Women make up just 14% of the boards of major African companies and urgent action is needed to close the gender gap, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“To break the ‘glass ceiling’ in Africa, we urgently need to bring women on corporate boards, which we can do by fast-tracking them through middle and senior management in the private sector,” said Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the bank’s special envoy on gender. “We need to think and act differently and invest markedly in women’s leadership.”

The first study of female board membership in Africa was launched by the AfDB during this week’s World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.

It measured 2013 data for 307 companies in 12 African countries and found that just one in seven board members is female. The African countries with the highest percentage of women on boards are Kenya (19.8%), South Africa (17.4%), Botswana (16.9%), Zambia (16.9%) and Ghana (17.7%).

The companies with the highest percentage of women on boards are East Africa Breweries of Kenya (45.5%), followed by two South African firms, Impala Platinum Holdings (38.5%) and Woolworths Holdings (30.8%).

To increase female representation, the AfDB recommends that publicly listed companies should be forced to say how many women are in senior positions and quotas should be introduced.

Read more at Guardian