African Finance: Gender Equality and Transparency Pave the Way for Stronger Female Leadership
Follow-Up
Samira Khamlishi, president of the Moroccan Association of Women Administrators (CFA Maroc), stated that laws ensuring gender equality and salary transparency are essential cornerstones for enhancing women’s presence in leadership positions within the African financial sector. She called for the establishment of true equality in professional promotion pathways.
During a workshop held yesterday as part of the fifth African Financial Summit in Casablanca, Khamlishi noted that while women hold a significant number of middle management positions in financial institutions, their representation in executive committees and boards of directors remains limited. She emphasized the importance of fostering trust in women’s capabilities to overcome these barriers.
The workshop was organized under the theme “Bridging Governance Gaps: Equal Pay, Career Advancement, and Retaining Female Talent”. Khamlishi highlighted persistent challenges, particularly those related to managing maternity leave periods and the wage disparities that may arise from them. She urged for the development of legal frameworks to ensure greater fairness in the salary system and to expand these measures to include executive committees and senior positions.
In her presentation, Suad Hamdi, a partner at the office of Forvest Mazars, shared data showing that women constitute about 50% of the workforce in African banking institutions, yet their presence in management roles does not exceed 25% to 30%. She affirmed that institutions with diverse boards of directors achieve better financial performance and greater progress in innovation, governance, and profitability.
Hamdi explained that this imbalance is due to institutional and structural factors, in addition to individual barriers. She called for a comprehensive analysis of three main areas: equal pay, career development, and the retention of female talent, to facilitate the exchange of best practices and support women’s representation in the financial sector.
The African Financial Summit, organized by the Group “Jeune Afrique Media” in partnership with the International Finance Corporation and with support from leading Moroccan and African financial institutions, serves as a prominent platform for sharing visions and ideas about the future of financing on the continent, with over 1,250 leaders from the financial sector, including representatives from banks, insurance companies, and fintech firms.
The summit discusses six main topics, including global economic challenges, prospects for commercial banks, capital markets, sustainable financing, expanding the insurance sector, and digital financing.
