Corporates making a statement on International Women’s Day

NAIROBI, KENYA: As the world come together to celebrate this year’s International Women Day, a number of companies have lined up different plans to mark the occasion.

The day, which is marked across the World on March 8, celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It also mark a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

A number of companies sampled have action plan centered on fostering gender parity, trainings and coming up with challenges geared towards empowering women

The Nairobi Securities Exchange will be hosting future women Chief Executive Officers training to mark the day while Kenya Commercial Bank Group changed its logo to a lioness in honour of women.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange will hold future women CEOs and Board members training for women in top management and leadership positions in their organisations to mark the occasion.

World’s largest beverage maker says it will focus on accelerating a new gender balance plan to empower women in Central and West African countries

According to the plan, more women in the workplace and in leadership roles make business sense. 

In the Central and West Africa Region, Nestlé aims to bring the Gender Balance Acceleration Plan to life through its multi-pronged initiatives, such as trainings to raise awareness on gender biases, career development and mentoring programmes for women.

Visa

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Visa has reinforced its dedication to women empowerment with the launch of the first Visa Everywhere Initiative: Women’s Global Edition.

The global program invites women entrepreneurs from around the world to tackle FinTech (financial technology) and Social Impact challenges for a chance to win Sh10 million ($100,000) in each of the two challenges. The program will culminate with a finals event to be held during kick-off of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019.  

“More than 163 million women around the world have started their own business in the last five years, accounting for up to 37 per cent of the workforce. Women entrepreneurship is on the rise and Visa is committed to inspiring more women to break through barriers through platforms like the Visa Everywhere Initiative,” said Lynne Biggar, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at Visa.  

Since 2015, the Visa Everywhere Initiative has provided visionary solutions for commerce and payment challenges of tomorrow. The program has activated regionally in 75 countries and awarded more than 70 leading startups with monetary prizes, mentorship and access to Visa’s clients and partners.

Now, for the first time, the program will shift from regionally focused events to a worldwide program centered on FinTech and Social Impact to shine a spotlight on the millions of underrepresented women business leaders and Visa’s commitment to micro and small businesses catalyzing change.  

To participate, companies with at least one female founder are invited to submit solutions that tackle challenges facing the FinTech and Social Impact landscapes today through one of the two innovative briefs.

Google on the other hand swapped out its usual rainbow-colored logo with interactive Doodles that celebrate the work of 12 female artists from around the world.

The company says it hopes the combined power of words and https://cdn.standardmedia.co.ke/images help bring stories to life in a way that invokes feelings of understanding, empathy and spirit of the day.

The Standard Group appreciated the everyday contribution made by female staff to the success of its business. “It is understandable that having a family and a career can be a difficult balancing act. As we celebrate International Women’s day, I reiterate that I will always strive to support staff to ensure that each person is able to reach their full career potential while maintaining a good work-life balance,” said Orlando Lyomu, Group Chief Executive Officer.