The OneWAPCo family commemorated International Women’s Day with events across all its locations in Ghana, Togo and Benin. Each location held its own celebration. However, a main event was held at the Head office in Accra, Ghana with the workforce from Togo, Benin and Nigeria participating virtually.

The Special guest for the occasion was Dr. Stella Agyenim-Boateng, Advisor, Office of the Chief Executive, Volta River Authority and she spoke on the topic, “Embracing Equity – my personal experiences and lessons learnt”.

Dr. Stella Agyenim-Boateng, said it is important to have a continuous annual emphasis on the woman, as marked by the International Women’s Day because several factors, including societal stereotyping, how men and women are socialized, cultural practices including proverbs, conscious and unconscious biases, and several other social practices inhibit women and make women, even when they have all the required skills, competence and experience and are fully qualified, feel so limited that they do not want to explore and exploit their full potentials.

The continuous emphasis on the woman, on International Women’s Day, is to encourage and challenge women to unleash their best potentials for the benefit of society, she said. It is also to draw society’s attention to conscious and unconscious biases, micro inequities and other practices that limit women and prevents them from reaching their full potentials.

WAPCo’s Managing Director Ms. Michelle Burkett, the company’s female Managing Director, said it was important to support women to play higher roles as this results in real tangible benefits to the society and organisations that do so. This assertion she said was supported by statistics. She companies with women on the executive committee, had 47% higher return on equity.  Companies with gender diversity in their Boards consistently outperform those Boards that have no gender diversity. She said these statistics are real reasons for businesses to watch out for women in their leadership.

Ms. Burkett said the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) States of Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria have made some of the biggest advancements in driving equality for women including passing laws that promote women. “I’m so happy and honored to be here representing as a woman, and I truly want to continue to build this culture of promoting the progress of women across the business and invite you all to join me, whether you’re a woman or a man.”