Stanbic Bank Zambia held its annual Blue Diamond celebration of women bankers on Saturday (October 29) with a strong call to empower, mentor and commit to promoting women within the bank to secure continued growth of the company.
Minister of Gender Victoria Kalima was guest of honour at the annual head-office conference, which brings together all its women employees from across the country with the aim of mentoring, networking and dealing with the challenges women face within the bank across the country.
“I am excited that Stanbic Bank is making it easy in helping government to achieve what we are trying to achieve as the Ministry of Gender; that is 50 percent women representation. As government we are looking at reducing the gap between men and women and ensuring that we catch up in leadership roles and governance for general development of women,” said Kalima.
Stanbic Bank employs 800 people in Zambia, of which 43 percent are women. Of those, 50 percent of its senior executives are female.
“At Stanbic Bank we are proud to be associated with women because women are making a difference and can change things. Our fundamental belief is to support diversity; not only diversity from the point of view of culture, or religion but also women diversity to appreciate and value the role that women play. Almost 50 percent of our executive team are women,” said Stanbic Bank Zambia managing director Charles Mudiwa.
The conference attracted a range of speakers who were tasked to speak, encourage and motivate the bankers with the aim of supporting and improving the overall performance of women in Stanbic Bank across the country.
In addition, the bank supports girl child education and development through scholarships to vulnerable children and is working with the Kuchetekela Foundation in supporting children living in impoverished communities. Mrs Kalima pledged K5,000 towards supporting the foundation, adding to the K50,000 donated to the foundation by Stanbic in the past three years.
Recently Stanbic was recognised for supporting women entrepreneurs in Zambia by the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme (AWEP) Pan-Africa, a central thrust of which is to enable African women and men to participate in the American market, using regional linkages, policies and strategies. The bank received the first AWEP Pan-Africa Award for its support given to women entrepreneurs in Zambia.