Hansatu Adegbite, Executive Director, WIMBIZ

Hansatu is guided by her personal mission statement which is to positively inspire, impact and invest in lives.

She is an alumnus of Harvard Business School with an Action Learning Masters in Business Administration from Business School Netherlands (BSN) and serves as a member of the BSN Governing Board of its alumni. Hansatu is also a graduate of Business Administration from the University of Abuja where she served as the first female president of the Nigerian Universities Association of Management and Business Students (NUAMBS).

She has gained a Certificate in Entrepreneurship Management from the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) in Lagos and is a life member of the EDC alumni association. She finished her secondary school education from the first girls military school in West Africa, the Air Force Girls Military School in Jos and further served as the pioneer National Chairperson of its alumni.

Hansatu is a United Kingdom certified trainer and Associated Stress Consultant (ASC) in Life Coaching. She has over 20 years professional experience in banking, entrepreneurship and team building consulting. Her corporate work experience started in commercial banking at the United Bank for Africa Plc, an administrator and at ICDL Nigeria. She was also a training partner with Business School Netherlands International and a training associate with Howes Consulting Group.
Adegite’s entrepreneurship experience has been in team building consulting and events management.

In addition to these, her true passion has always been in volunteering in the social sector and has over 25 years volunteer experience in professional associations, NGOs and faith-based organisations that are gender focused and provide development opportunities for children and youth.

She has been awarded for her service in various leadership capacities and sits on 3 social sector Boards. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Women in Management, Business and Public Service WIMBIZ in Lagos.

In terms of having enough women in leadership positions, Hansatu believes we have made progress in that space but it has been very slow. She however asserts that we have made a bit of progress, saying that if we look at Nigeria 20years ago, it was unheard of, to have a female as the Chairman of a bank. For her, that glass ceiling has been destroyed because today, we have female chairmen of banks.

On the multitasking abilities of women, she says, despite the strength of women to efficiently multitask, there are heavy demands and responsibilities on women. She revealed that a lot of women, when they go into the workforce, have the same opportunities as men, but when they start getting committed to their marital responsibilities, some give up their careers, while others cannot cope with the demands of motherhood and the workplace.