By Elizabeth Osayande & Happiness Ernest

The Managing Director, MD, Guinness Nigeria PLC, Baker Magunda has called for the removal of inhibitions placed on the female gender from attaining equal opportunities with their male counterparts.

Magunda stated this recently at a media briefing, where the company gave an update on efforts in diversity and inclusion strategies aimed at driving sustainable growth for women in leadership, among other relevant areas of gender equality.

His words:” At Guinness, we are committed to creating the most inclusive and diverse culture anywhere in Nigeria, and to do that we are leading policy changes in this country.

“So what we are trying to create here, is to embrace and cultivate a mindset of how we can maximise the full potentials of individuals, by removing inhibitions that could disturb people expressing that potential. And clearly, one of the things that the society, especially in Africa, is that gender is still an inhibition and you have to confront that. Therefore, we are trying to remove any inhibition from gender and we are on the journey to do that.” He said.

On how Guinness was set to change the story of stereotype in workplace, Guinness MD explained that : “ By 2030, we will have a 50-50 workforce of both males and females at Guinness, and we have to start at the top because people who make policy and people who execute policy need to understand and learn how to work in a mixed team.

“Our board is 50-50 female and male, our leadership team is almost 50-50 female and male and the next level we have reached 35 per cent female and the rest are male and this would soon reflect because the last 12 months, we have gone after equal recruitment opportunity and nobody will accept anything less than that.”

“It is a recruitment that we have to show everybody that the doors are opened for everybody to be their best and that is what we have been trying to do. For instance, all the hiring in the last 12 months, 67 percent of them have been females. It has improved the percentage of females at Guinness. And we will be doing more.” Magunda reiterated.

The Guinness Nigeria Boss also noted that talks were ongoing with policy makers on how to address laws that prohibit women from working certain jobs, and from working at a particular period of time.

Giving her voice on the issue of diversity and inclusion, the Human Resources Director, Ayodeji Akinola reiterated that Guinness remained committed to ensure that people irrespective of gender strive.