FITC advocates support for young women in business

The Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) has implored organisations to provide millennial women with the assistance and resources needed to deal with the pressures of the business world at an event.

Chizor Malize, MD/CEO of FITC, said this at the Employee Marketplace 2022 event, themed ‘Millennial Women in the Workplace: Building Career Resilience Post Pandemic’, in Lagos.

The event, which was centred on an initiative called Employee Marketplace, brought together business executives, entrepreneurs, and millennials from various industries across Nigeria to participate in the study’s review.

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The goal of the initiative was to create a network of information on how to use skills to boost workplace creativity.

According to Nduneche Ezurike, EMP convener and the group head of strategic brand management and communication at Polaris Bank Ltd, said the objectives of the theme were to enable gender parity and inclusiveness of women in their workplace.

“Today’s reality has shown that with the millennials, there is barely any line across gender, because everyone is aspiring to do great things; so indeed a greater number of women are coming into the workplace and are challenging themselves to take the reins in a lot of areas. The problem, therefore, is retention,’’ Malize said.

She noted the difficult task that women have in the workplace, such as juggling home and work, and how, in the end, they tend to drop off at the intermediate level, leaving fewer women in top-level management and other leadership position

“More deliberations should therefore focus on flipping this around and equipping dynamic millennial women to further develop their capacities, be prepared, and become the best version of themselves, to get to leadership positions and be in the boardrooms and other places where decisions are being made, in order to catalyse inclusive growth and make an impact in their generation,” she said.

Nkechi Ali-Balogun, principal consultant and CEO of NECCI Consulting, said female CEOs should follow due process, monitor outcomes, and naturally collaborate with anyone who helps the company achieve its goals, rather than hiding behind an entitlement attitude.