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Standard Bank Namibia Supporting Rise of Women in Leadership

Standard Bank Namibia Supporting Rise of Women in Leadership

Standard Bank Namibia is becoming a recognized and respected model of corporate equality as 60 percent of the group’s workforce is comprised of women. Not only is the lesser represented gender working for Standard Bank’s branches, women in Namibia have stepped up to fulfill managerial and senior-level positions in the company, All Africa reported.

The leadership shift is due mostly in part to the Global Standard Bank Group Women in Leadership programme, which was created to encourage women to take on management roles while accelerating their corporate careers.

“In Standard Bank Namibia women are the majority across all levels of work including managerial levels,” Standard Bank Namibia’s Head of Human Resources, Isdor Angula, said in the report. “This clearly creates confidence in women to excel in their careers, while at the same time living up to our values of growing our people as a bank.”

According to All Africa, the Standard Bank Group has implemented team leadership and foundation leadership programmes that also contribute to accelerated professional development.

“Leadership is earned and a true leader takes care of her people, so I strive by all means to make it a point to plough back the knowledge I have gained with my team mates,” Saara Shivute, head of Standard Bank Namibia Shared Services, said in the report.

Shivute says the women in leadership programme aided in sharpening her personal branding and managerial skills, which come in handy now that she is supervisor to 27 employees. Another participant, Magano Erkana, who heads Standard Bank’s legal services credited the programme’s perpetuated feedback and 360 assessments to her success.

“Through our three-months Women in Leadership Development Programme, it is all about empowering and creating opportunities for our female staff to grow and develop themselves as leaders. Skills development, training and career development therefore play an important role in honing those exceptional leadership skills,” Angula added.

“We have built a great team of people over the past few years and we continue to make our bank the best bank to work for through inspired leadership.”

Standard Bank Group is proud of the equality trend that has become a staple and hopes to influence others to enforce similar company practices, which date back to 1915. Then, women began filling positions in Standard Bank branches to accommodate the absence of men who were in the military, All Africa reported.