Presco Plc on Friday joined the international community to mark the 2024 International Women’s Day (IWD), calling for inclusion, gender-equality world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.
At a colourful ceremony held within the company’s premises in Edo State, Reji George, Chief Executive Officer of Presco Plc, congratulated the Gender Committee and all female employees for their dedications to the growth and development of the company over the years.
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He explained that the company which is foremost producer of specialty fats and oils
will continue to strive for equality, adding that 40 percent of the company’s empoyees of about ten thounsand are women.
Explaining further, the CEO said: ”We need to look back as an organisation, community and society and think of how to support Gender Equality when it comes to education and employment. It is not employment alone but leadership position in employment sector“.
Fatima Emeri, coordinator of the Gender Committee also used the opportunity to commend the management of the company for providing the plaform for Women, urging female staff to take advantage of the opportunity.
All the speaker at the event emphasised on the need for team work and dedication.
Betty Agbonkpolo, guest speaker advised female staff to have a mentor, be discipline, show confidence and give priority to education.
Also speaking at the event, Frank Osemwegie Agbongiague, Human Resource Manager, Presco Plc said Presco is committed to policies and practices that is key to promoting gender balance in the work place.
He said:“Women are vital to our continuous progress, therefore, it is extremely important to advocate gender inclusivity and inspire inclusion in our organisation and the society at large“.
He added: “It is a well-known fact that the greatest asset of a company are its people; it is also a verifiable fact that these diverse set of people that make up our workforce include a reasonable proportion of the female folk.
“Presco is committed to offering equal employment opportunity to the female folk. This policy and others alike ensures that there is no discrimination against women during employment.
“It is worthy of note that all relevant laws with regards to ensuring the protection of women is strictly complied with by Presco Plc. We have gone beyond granting maternity leave to all women irrespective of their cadre with full pay, we ensure that additional three months of working half day with full pay is implemented for the nursing mothers to ensure proper care for their young ones.
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“All pregnant women within our employment are giving lighter work and excluded from any hazardous operation during pregnancy, this is a clear policy as stated in our policy on pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
“There has also been a deliberate effort to ensure that the female and male counterpart are protected against sexual harassment in our establishment.
“This informed the creation of the gender committee. The gender committee is ably chaired by a woman and the membership of the committee is about 67 percent women.
“Bringing into perspective the recommended approaches to promoting gender inclusivity as available on the website of the IWD, Presco has not performed badly and will continue to improve on what has been done for all its female workers.
“Our recruitment policy and standard operating procedure also provide for training and development of competent female and male workers, which has remained open to both male and female gender, attest to our implementation of these recommended actions including the promotion of women’s economic empowerment,“ he added.
