Last month, Nigeria joined the rest of the world to celebrate the annual International Women’s Day. Today, we take a look at the history of this celebration, the gains and how MultiChoice Nigeria promotes gender equality in its workspace.

How the International Women’s Day Started

International Women’s Day is a worldwide event dedicated to the celebration of women’s achievements- from business, politics to social endeavours- while at the same time reminding the world that more still needs to be done for gender equality.

Its roots can be traced to the 20th-century march by over 15,000 women through New York City demanding voting rights, better pay, and shorter working hours. In 1910, Clara Zetkin suggested the idea of an international women day during an International Conference for Working Women in Copenhagen. The idea was unanimously accepted by the over 100 women who attended the conference from 17 countries.

This day has been observed since the 1900s but was made official in 1975 when the United Nations (UN) started celebrating the day with an annual theme. The theme ‘Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future’ was the first annual theme and was used in 1996. The theme for 2019 is BalanceForBetter.

Why the Day is Still Being Celebrated after a Hundred Years

The world as it is today has not deviated much from the past hundred years. Certainly, there has been some progress in achieving gender equality, but the original aim of the day- to achieve full gender equality for women across the globe in all human endeavours- has not been accomplished. The issue of gender pay gap is still commonplace, especially in organisations that are seen as progressive by society. Some years back, the spotlight was on the BBC’s wide pay gap between men and women doing the same job for the corporation.

In politics, women may have succeeded in leading big democracies like Germany and Britain, but there still aren’t equal numbers of women in politics and business. After a hundred years of the march in New York City, global figures show that violence against women, women’s health and education are still worse compared to men.

Statistics from the World Economic Forum show that, based on current realities, it will take 168 years to bridge the gender gap. But the process is on to close that gap as many women across the globe are overcoming the barriers to their dreams.

The Importance of this Year’s Theme

This year’s theme, BalanceForBetter, is in recognition of the growing global movement for professional and social equality. Also described as a ‘business issue’ the theme is at once a call for and an encouragement of gender balance in boardrooms, in the media and in wealth for the promotion of growth of the global economy. It echoes the aims of MultiChoice Nigeria’s equal opportunity workplace.

How MultiChoice Nigeria Promotes BalanceForBetter

On this occasion of the International Women’s Day, it is important that we remember and celebrate the wonderful and intelligent and highly resourceful women at MultiChoice Nigeria who have contributed immensely to the growth of this enterprise.  At MultiChoice Nigeria, we are proud to say we have women who have shattered the business glass ceiling throughout their careers, and they continue to be the backbones of our enterprise and an inspiration to us all. Let’s unveil some of our gems:

Wangi Mba-Uzokwu, who is the Channel Director, Africa Magic, has been instrumental to the growth of MultiChoice Nigeria. With 24 years’ experience under her belt, spanning renowned institutions such as Coca-Cola, Airtel Nigeria and British American Tobacco, Wangi has shown that she is the kind of professional everyone would want in their team. As Regional Manager of Africa Magic, she superintended the growth of content and actualization of initiatives such as Africa Magic GO, the Africa Magic Video on Demand service, Africa Magic Igbo channel and the Africa Magic Original Films project.

As Channel Director of Africa Magic, she has ensured a more robust and exciting range of content for customers that satisfy a variety of entertainment interest.

Wangi

Hasiya Abdu Currently the Executive Head, Customer Experience and Care, Hasiya has been in the corporate world for 13 years. She began her career in financial services as a Banker, traversing various roles in Marketing as well as Banking operations. She made a career change when she joined MultiChoice Nigeria, as Head of Operations where she spearheaded the successful migration of Key Customer Management Systems. She also holds a Master’s in Development Studies and has attended leadership courses the Senior Management Program from London Business School and Lagos Business school.

Hasiya has been and still is, at the forefront of driving the customer-centric experience in MultiChoice Nigeria. She’s instrumental in managing diverse projects and platforms that are crucial to customer satisfaction, which includes; the digital platforms as well as the national contact centre that gives our customers access to our services.

Hasiya

Busola Tejumola (PhD) Busola is the Executive Head, Content MultiChoice Nigeria. She has experience in diverse business fields from technical support, service delivery, business development, insights, strategy, content and production. Before joining MultiChoice Nigeria, she was Head of Technical Support and Chief Relationship and Business Development at MWeb and iWay Africa respectively.

In 2014, Busola had the responsibility of utilizing business insights to chart Multichoice Nigeria’s strategy as Head of Strategy and Insights after which she became the GM Content and was instrumental to the rebirth of Big Brother Naija.

She has provided MultiChoice Nigeria with detailed strategies and insights, building high performing teams with successful outcomes.

Busola

Kholeka Maringa Kholeka is the Executive Head, DStv Media Sales. She was the General Manager, DStv Media Sales and has also worked as Deputy GM Africa for DStv Media Sales where she displayed great skill in forging strategic partnerships for big-ticket events like AMVCA’s.

Kholeka

Caroline Oghuma Caroline is the Executive Head, Corporate Affairs. For over a decade and a half, she has been instrumental in shaping the reputation of organisations. Prior to joining Multichoice, she had worked at MTN and Stanbic IBTC. She joined MultiChoice in 2014 and has proven to be a ‘people person’ always.

Caroline

Seun Ikekhua Seun is the Head, Customer Value Management. She started her career in MultiChoice Nigeria as a call centre representative and has grown through the ranks. She has built a reputation for innovation over the years which led her on a skills transfer course as she trained MultiChoice Malawi Retention team.

Seun