Prudential Bank Ltd holds maiden Women Empowerment seminar

Prudential Bank Ltd (PBL), a leading indigenous Ghanaian Bank, has held its maiden Women Empowerment seminar under the theme “Empowering Women for Sustainable Business Growth.”

The event held in Accra, was targeted at the female employees of the Bank in line with Principle 4 of the Ghana Sustainable Banking Principles (GSBPS) of the Bank of Ghana, which highlights the need for banks to promote gender equality within their operations and those of their clients. Subsequent seminars will focus on the Bank’s customers and the general public.

The seminar served as a platform to showcase the Bank’s commitment towards Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, as well as broadening employee perspectives, building strong teams and providing the balanced workforce needed to achieve the Bank’s objectives. It also featured seasoned professionals who shared their experiences to shine light on women empowerment and its benefits to society and organisations.

The panelists included the Commissioner of Police (COP), Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office, Professor (Mrs.) Rosemond Boohene, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Dr. (Mrs.) Irene Stella Agyenim-Boateng, Vice Chairperson of the Public Services Commission, and Dr. James S. Dzisah, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Ghana.

Opening the seminar, the Managing Director of Prudential Bank, Mr. Bernard Gyebi, stated that Prudential Bank had embraced sustainability, which was evident by the Board’s approval of the Bank’s sustainability policy and strategy. He further stated the essence of Gender Equality through Diversity and Inclusion for sustainable business growth before acknowledging the fact that women bring enormous contributions to the table and thus must be empowered to accelerate progress.

Mr. Gyebi indicated further that “there was no better time than now for PBL to take the bold step to show the world the Bank’s commitment towards women empowerment and to create a lasting positive change for a better tomorrow”.

COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, stated during the panel discussion that women needed to take steps to empower themselves, be assertive, improve their self-worth, stand out and take advantage of opportunities. She further indicated that women needed to build strong support systems to enable them achieve their set goals.

While sharing her thoughts on the theme for the day, Dr. Irene Stella Agyenim-Boateng, alluded to the fact that the onus is on women to be empowered and take control of their destiny. She also stated that women needed to remove stereotypes and self-imposed standards which hold them back.

She highlighted the need for women to upgrade themselves by pursuing relevant courses and professional certificates in order to improve their careers.

Professor Mrs. Rosemond Boohene and Dr. James Dzisah, both spoke extensively about the need for institutional changes to support empowerment of women. They mentioned that institutions should work to shift the narrative to get more women into fields that had historically been dominated by males.

To this end, the speakers urged women to aspire for leadership positions and not shy away from them when the opportunity arose. However, this will only happen if women are well prepared for such opportunities.

Prudential Bank intends to leverage this maiden seminar and other similar ones to be rolled out in the near future to drive home its commitment to push for empowerment, equality, diversity, inclusion and also to develop and deliver defined products for the women’s market.