<p><em><strong>Since 1975, The United Nations, UN, began celebrating International Women&#8217;s Day in the International Women&#8217;s Year, 1975. By 1977, the global body’s General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women&#8217;s rights and world peace.</strong> <strong>43 years after, the essence of womanhood has manifested in FirstBank</strong></em><strong> by <em> taking steps to ensure that women and women-led businesses are empowered. The bank has, through its FirstGem; FirstMonie and First Women Network empowered and brought several unbanked women into the financial system. This it proved during this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration which held on March 8.</em></strong> <em><strong>What FirstBank does is reproduced here unedited as earlier captured by COLLINS NWEZE.</strong></em></p>



<p>Empowering women through
improved access to finance and social support are crucial in achieving the
desired growth for the economy. This is the belief of First Bank of Nigeria
Limited, even as it maintained that investing in women’s economic empowerment
sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive
economic growth.</p>



<p>It acknowledges the
enormous contributions made by women, whether as business women, farmers,
entrepreneurs or employees, or by doing unpaid care work at home.</p>



<p>This it demonstrated
during this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD), a worldwide event that
celebrates women’s achievements – from the political to the social. It is also
a day that stakeholders in Nigeria and in the Diaspora canvassed gender
equality in society and workplace.</p>



<p>The event brings together
governments, women’s organisations, corporations and charities for purposes of
development and inclusion.</p>



<p>According to the World
Bank, women empowerment is the process that creates power in individuals over
their own lives, society and in their communities.</p>



<p>Women’s empowerment is all
about equipping and allowing them to make life-determining decisions through
the different problems in society.</p>



<p>Also, empowering women by
granting them access to vast opportunities and information will not only lead
to personal development for them but also the development of the communities
and societies they operate in.</p>



<p>First Bank is, therefore,
supporting women’s economic empowerment through FirstGem, which gives them
economic voice and bring many unbanked women to the financial system.</p>



<p>The bank has advanced N58
billion loans to over 81,000 women-led businesses and interests. Besides,
44,356 women (corporate and individual, including members of staff of the bank)
currently own and operate the FirstGem account with a seating balance of N2.4
billion.</p>



<p>Also, the Agent Banking
platform – which the bank leads in the industry – has promoted not just the
financial inclusion of women but also independence as there are many women
among its Agent Banking. Data showed that there are 38,185 male banking agents,
and 11,762 female banking agents.</p>



<p>First Bank Managing
Director/CEO AdesolaKazeemAdeduntan, said women-led businesses constitute a
large part of the banks’ balance sheets and stream of income, even as he added
that the bank will continue to give priority to issues that affect women.</p>



<p>He said the bank is also
in tune with the Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles (NSBP) which requires
that companies promote gender equality in workplace.</p>



<p>To support the NSBP
project and give women voice in the workplace, FirstBank boss said women remain
some of the best workforces and always make great impact in establishments.</p>



<p>FirstBank believes that
women needed to be economically empowered. Unless social concerns such as
gender disparity and women economic empowerment are addressed, economic and
environmental goals and overall sustainable development will be difficult to
achieve.</p>



<p>Adeduntan said the
introduction of FirstGem, a female-focused product by the bank has contributed
to the development of the Nigerian economy.</p>



<p>Speaking at the FirstGem
third anniversary conference held in Lagos, the bank chief said he was
delighted that FirstGem is promoting savings culture, financial literacy, loan
management, wealth creation and healthy lifestyle for women.</p>



<p>Adeduntan said the product
has a wide array of advisory, health and current awareness services for the
discerning woman.</p>



<p>He said: “On October 28,
2016 we launched this women-centric account, designed specifically to meet the
financial needs of both corporate and entrepreneurial women. This product,
apart from being an account dedicated solely to women, is lifestyle-enhancing.</p>



<p>“It provides a total
lifestyle support for discerning women to enable them to meet their economic
needs and aspirations. It goes without saying that economic stability does
impact overall stability of individuals, institutions, communities and nations.</p>



<p>“With FirstGem, therefore,
our long-term focus is on national economic development. I believe that with
the indices we have so far, FirstGem is on the right performance track.”</p>



<p>In sports, the Female
Basketball team, Elephant Girls, have, over the years, dominated the Women
Basketball League of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, representing Nigeria in
the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Africa Women’s Champions.</p>



<p>According to FirstBank,
Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CR&;S) involves meeting the
needs of our stakeholders now and in the future. Our CR&;S approach is
three-pronged: citizenship, stakeholder management and impact management.</p>



<p>“Citizenship and
stakeholder management involves putting into consideration the needs of
stakeholders in making decisions, while impact management is basically about
minimising our negative impacts and increasing our positive impacts on society.</p>



<p>“FirstBank prides itself
in being an equal opportunity employer and have integrated diversity and
inclusion policies and awareness into its practices.</p>



<p>The bank said its efforts
at engendering diversity in the workplace include having in place a policy that
encourages inclusion. The group’s diversity and inclusion objective is to be a
recognised industry leader in workforce diversity and leverage diversity for
the growth of the group and the success of the customers and communities we serve.
We have a male: female ratio of 61:39 across the workforce,” he said.</p>



<p>Also, the bank’s Board and
Senior Management Teams have consistently supported women development by
deliberately designing a dedicated platform called FirstGem to drive financial
inclusion and all-round development of women.</p>



<p>The bank’s CR&;S
approach is designed to deliver value in a structured way in the areas of
education, health and welfare; financial inclusion; responsible lending and
procurement.</p>



<p>Inclusivity ties in with
our people empowerment goal which includes improving the lives of our
stakeholders through the bank’s agenda of nation-building by empowering women
and girls to access the opportunities and societal benefits to grow and advance
societal and economic benefits. The bank is committed to promoting diversity,
inclusion through our products, services and programmes.</p>



<p><strong>Advancing the FirstGem vision </strong></p>



<p>FirstBank explained that
in recognition of the impact of women’s contribution to economic development,
the bank is steadily advancing the vision of FirstGem through active and
value-adding participation in many women empowerment programmes, international
conferences, seminars, workshops, and roadshows across different cities and
states of Nigeria over the past couple of years.</p>



<p>It revealed that at the
forefront of these engagements is the Chairman of Board of Directors of the
Bank who happens to be a female.</p>



<p>It said the bank is
committed to maintaining a positive work environment and to conducting business
in a positive, professional manner by consistently ensuring equal employment
opportunity.</p>



<p>FirstBank Women Network is
aimed at addressing the gender gap at the senior levels and taps the
opportunities presented by enabling our women to contribute even more if given
the necessary strategic support and an enabling environment. This includes
providing a platform that enables women to become more engaged in their
workplace, set and achieve goals, have greater influence in their lives and
achieve more of their potential.</p>



<p>The initiative was
launched with the International Women’s day (IWD) celebration that held on
March 8, 2018 with the theme #PressforProgress.</p>



<p>Also, the First Women
Network is built around six pillars which are influence career pipeline,
networking opportunities, grooming, etiquette and poise, mentoring, coaching
and sponsorship opportunities, counselling, support and welfare, financial
planning and empowerment.</p>



<p><strong>Coaching/mentoring scheme</strong></p>



<p>FirstBank has a coaching
and mentoring scheme dedicated to female members of staff in the bank. This is
to enable older female members of staff to handhold and coach the younger ones
with reference to their experience as they climbed the career ladder.</p>



<p>For her, the types and
number of products and services available to women include the facilities and
polices provided to support gender diversity in the work place, among others.</p>



<p>Also, 2,708 female
employees have special opportunities as nursing mothers: The Bank recognises
that pregnancy and childbirth may take its toll on the women.</p>



<p>In addition to the three
months’ maternity leave with pay, our practice allows for nursing mothers to
resume two hours later than the normal resumption period, or close two hours
earlier than the normal closing hours. This is applicable for the first three
months after resumption from maternity.</p>



<p>All these have made the
bank winner of the Nigeria Sustainable Banking Awards on Women Empowerment
Category, which is driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria, among other laurels.</p>

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