Accra, March 11, GNA – The Vodafone Ghana Foundation says its intervention programmes have had positive impacts on the lives of the vulnerable especially women as the World observed the 2022 “International Women’s Day (IWD)”.
As the day provided a platform to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women, Ms Hannah Ashiokai Akrong, the Vodafone Ghana Human Resource Director, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said challenges persisted as gains in certain quarters had been eroded.
Speaking on this year’s IWD theme: “Break the Bias,” she said it was apt given that women constituted a key percentage of the global population.
Ahead of the celebration, she said Vodafone started a serialised social media campaign on the “Break the Bias” theme, where it leveraged creative artwork to drive awareness of the various gender biases and drive the need to empower women.
Similar to previous years, it extended the celebration throughout the week with a number of remarkable initiatives designed to empower women and address gender challenges.
Such initiatives included internal sessions with all females, dedication of time of Vodafone female leaders to inspiring various groups of women and young girls in seminars and workshops as well as training programmes.
Ms Akrong said gender equality was important as women made up almost half of Ghana’s population.
She noted that research continued to prove that gender equality was critical in creating a sustainable future and driving the economic growth and development of any economy.
“In Vodafone’s ‘Inclusion for All’ pillar, which is part of its ‘purpose-driven’ plan, the company is very interested in gender. At Vodafone, we deliberately promote gender equality at every level of the organization,” Ms. Akrong noted.
She explained that females occupied five out of the nine key senior management positions within the Vodafone Ghana business, adding: “We proactively empower and mentor females for leadership roles and also give opportunities to ladies who are studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics related programmes (STEM).”
The STEM programme embraces female engineering students from various universities to work in different departments of Vodafone Ghana and currently, more than 40 females are working in that capacity.
Ms Akrong explained that other measures undertaken by Vodafone Ghana to ensure that females had equity was, to ensure that during recruitment, females that were capable with skills were given priority.
Moreover, Vodafone through its ‘Reconnect’ programme, continued to attract talented women who had left the workplace for several years and would like to return to work on a full-time or flexible basis.
“With our Gender-friendly Policies, our maternity policy and parental leave policy have affirmed our commitment to diversity and inclusion and position us as an employer of choice. Vodafone is arguably the first organisation to introduce four months paid leave for employees in Ghana,” Madam Akrong disclosed.
She mentioned other external initiatives like the “Girls Camp” where girls in STEM were empowered across about 18 second cycle schools nationwide, the “Code like a Girl”, where girls are enhanced with knowledge on computer programmes development, as some of the interventions made to build the capacity of females.
The Vodafone Ghana Foundation also brought relief to more than 20,000 distressed pregnant through providing them with ultra-sound scan, and completed and handed over a transit shelter to Ark Foundation, a non-governmental organization, to support and accommodate domestic violence victims in Ghana.
In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, it empowered 1,500 women in the informal sector with digital and financial skills in the Upper East region in the Agric-processing sector, savings, food security, business improvement; and financial services through Vodafone’s mobile money platform.
The project is also expected to bring indirect benefit to 10,000 households in the region, Mrs Akrong said.
Making reference to a McKinsey Global Institute report, she said a total of US$12 trillion could be added to the global GDP by 2025 by the advancement of women’s equality in the world.
In showing leadership and drive for gender equality over the years, Vodafone Ghana was recognised as the Gender-Oriented Organisation of the Year at the Instinct Woman Awards.
Globally, the Vodafone brand has been recognized by the Bloomberg Gender Equity Index for its leadership and commitment to driving gender equality.
GNA