Nestlé launches Gender Balance Action Plan to support women in Africa

The Swiss food and drink company, Nestlé, has launched the Gender Balance Acceleration Plan ‘From Aspiration to Action’.

The initiative forms part of the company’s activities for International Women’s Day, and commits to providing equal equality within the workplace.

As part of the act, Nestlé has set the target of increasing the number of women in its top 200 senior executives from 20% to 30% by 2022.

In the Central and West Africa Region (CWAR), the company will address the initiative by trainings to raise gender bias awareness, career development programmes for women, gender-sensitive succession planning, and implementing its Maternity Protection Policy.

“When there’s a good mixture of men and women, team-building activities tend to be more balanced, helping to develop greater empathy among individuals and teams,” said Bunmi Etty-Mfon, Total Performance Management Manager for Technical at Nestlé CWA, reported Africa News.

SEE ALSO:

• Namibia’s Mines and Energy Deputy Minister highlights women’s role in mining

• Mastercard report indicates that Ghana has the highest percent of women business owners

• Insurance programme launched to support African women farmers

• Read the latest issue of Business Chief, Africa edition, here

“Diversity stimulates greater effort from everyone, leading to improved decision-making.”

“Also, as the majority of consumers in our region are women, it gives us great perspective to lead in innovation.”

Flowergate Factory is the first all-female production line in Nestlé Nigeria. Ibukun Ipinmoye, Factory Manager of Flowergate Factory, stated: “We soon realised that the female production lines are very productive thanks to their highly committed and collaborative spirit and their careful handling of the equipment. Gender diversity has helped to boost productivity.”

“As a result, we plan to introduce female operators to more complex lines to utilise their multitasking skills, and aim to hire female management trainees to 80%.”

Nestlé is the largest food company in the world and second largest Swiss firm by revenue.