Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor is a big fan of gender balancing in management appointments by financial institutions in the country, and he;s been advocating for more appointment of women into management positions in banks.

The CBN Governor revealed this while speaking in Abuja, at an event organised by the Apex bank to celebrate the International Women’s Day. He stressed that there was the need to increase the level of participation of women in key positions in the private sector as well.

Emefiele said that the present situation, where only three out of the 27 chief executive officers of banks in Nigeria were women, was not acceptable, adding that the apex bank was mindful of the importance of women in the society, noting that this was why the CBN had championed the cause of women in the society. He said that the number of female directors in the CBN had moved up from one in 2001 to six in 2017.

He also explained that the percentage of women employees in the CBN had moved up from 24 per cent in 2013 to 28 per cent in 2017.

His words:  “In realisation of male domination of senior positions of the financial industry, the Bankers’ Committee adopted the quota system to increase women representation on Boards to 30 per cent.

“They also increased women participation at senior management level to 40 per cent in 2014.

“As a result today, three out of the 27 Bank CEOs are female with three women appointed as Chair of the Boards of three Banks for the first time.

“Despite this progress, it is obvious we have not met our goals. Therefore, we have to work much harder to improve these numbers and attain our objectives,’’ he said.

The CBN recognises the fact that gender equality and diversity were powerful tools for economic growth. For this reason, Mr. Emefiele said the CBN had institutionalised policies and programmes to overcome some of the barriers that were hampering women from rising to the top of their careers.

Also, the Special Adviser to the CBN Governor on Sustainable Banking, Dr Aisha Mahmood, said that women were `key’ to the economic development of Nigeria.

According to, her “It has been proven that women have immense potential as engines of growth and economic development. “Consequently, empowering them becomes beneficial to the society at large,’’