NAIROBI: Lawmakers have been challenged to enact a legislation that will guarantee women 30 per cent representation on corporate boards.
Recruitment firm, Virtual HR said introducing quota system in both the State and private corporation will go a long way in bridging the gender divide in the corporate world.
This might come as a tall order for a National Assembly that has struggled to come up with the right mechanism that would ensure women have at least one-third representation in Parliament. Managing Director of Virtual HR Gladys Ogallo said the measure would substantially alter the country’s corporate governance.
“While women population in Kenya stands at slightly more than 50 per cent, this does not reflect in terms of leadership and executive representation. Such a law would help give women key decision making roles and work to the full advantage of the institutions that embrace them by exposing them to a wider pool of talent and ideas,’’ said Mrs Ogallo. Some reports have shown that organisations with better representation of both genders outperform those without. A report by Cytonn Investments found that listed firms with gender diversity and ethnic diversity delivered better returns to their investors compared to firms with limited or no diversity.
Of the 50 listed firms surveyed, Barclays Bank of Kenya scored well on gender representation with the number of women sitting at the board of the lender at 50 per cent. Safaricom and Mumias Sugar scored 44 per cent and 36.3 per cent respectively.
However, Kenya Orchards, Car and General and Crown Paints barely had any women on their boards by the time the survey was being conducted, according to Cytonn study.
The study looked at the stock-price performance of the 50 firms for the last five years and found that while the top 25 in gender diversity had their stocks appreciate by 42.4 per cent, while the bottom 25 had their stock only appreciated by 25.6 per cent.
According to a survey recently conducted by the Kenya Institute of Management, only about 20 per cent of the seats in State agencies and corporate boards in Kenya are held by women.
Norway, Spain, France, Iceland have all legislated boardroom quotas, setting their minimums at 40 per cent.
