Amina Oyagbola is the founder WISCARS (Women in Successful Careers) and former HR Executive, MTN Nigeria. She has had over 25 years experience as a top level executive in the oil, financial and telecommunication industries. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she talks about her journey to the top, challenges for women and the importance of mentoring others.
How was the journey to the top? It’s been a very interesting ride. It’s a hard road, I don’t want to fool anyone by saying it was easy. It is not easy. You need to be determined, you need to be resilient, you need to be extremely industrious and hardworking. You must be committed and dedicated to what you are doing. You must be focused and need to be critically based because that is what is going to sustain you in the long term. It is a harder road if you are critically based but at the end of the day, you would be justified. I stayed the course for the length that I did, trying to encourage and inspire others. That basically is what my non-governmental organisation, WISCARS, is all about. We are about mentoring, we are about exemplarity, we are role models.
You need to show case that it is possible; that is why I stayed the course. So, it is possible that those coming behind us should stay the cause. Why is it worth it? This is because they can make a difference, they can make a change, they can influence bold change. They can touch on others positively. I try to do that in my own little way, as best as I could and the fight continues.
What are some of the lessons you learnt from mentoring women?
A lot. There are many areas from a generic point of view; it is never good to generalise completely. We found that as women, we need to build capacity, build our skills, build our competencies and be more self aware. I also talk about the unconscious biases, being more conscious of the work environment and the world that we live in, the society that we live in. We must be conscious of the cultural biases. When you are conscious, then you can address it and be more careful about how you surmount them as well as come up with a plan to overcome and become. Sometimes, women are consumed with all the multifarious things that we are handling and we compartmentalise. So, when we get to work we just want to do our work, play our little part without taking sufficient interest in the environment, what is happening there. You have to raise your head above and be able to read the signals, the nuances and understand where the pressure points are. That is one area and the other is in the area of communication. A lot of women speak well, very argumentative and would defeat their husbands in arguments. But when it comes to leading and in the work domain, they are shy to speak. I do not believe that it is a confidence issue. I think it is more about recognising the importance of communicating effectively in all forums, in small meetings, small groups, excos and every opportunity where you have something to contribute and something to do. It is not easy to just have it in your head, voice it.
Let’s talk about some of the people who mentored you
One of the reasons why I am passionate about this is because of the fact that throughout my career I never had a female mentor and I thought there was something wrong with that. So that is part of the reason why I formed WISCAR. It was not good enough, it was not as if the women did not exist. I had one or two professional colleagues, female peers, who were very nice and who I would chat with and who in a way I regard as mentors today. But as I was growing up in my career, I didn’t have any mentor. All my mentors were male and they were my male supervisors. I think I was very, very fortunate and very lucky to have had the kind of supervisors that I had. They were really interested in my development. They really supported me and tried to help me to steer my career in the right direction. And it was through them that I understood unconsciously the importance of mentoring as I went along and that support system of Guidance and Counselling is extremely important, especially at critical times. There are several incidences along the way that I may have taken the wrong decision but for the fact that I had objective and fair mentors who were ready to help.
For a lot of female entrepreneurs, there is a big challenge when it comes to accessing funds for their businesses, why is this so?
Even though we have taken some big steps forward, there is still a long way to go. The battle is not over and the battle is not so much about the change of the cause but change of mindsets, change of cultural belief systems and the unconscious bias that still exists everywhere that affects women. This sector, the private sector and everywhere you go. And that is what is holding development back in Africa or emerging countries. If you look at the World Economic Forum 2012, the global gender gap report, they said there very clearly that there is a very clear correlation between those countries that are most successful at closing the gender gap and those countries that are most economically competitive. So, to the question of accessing funds for female entrepreneurs, it is so difficult and in some cases before they can access funds, the collateral has to be accented to by their spouse. There are still issues of women accessing finance or women being able to get the support that they need for that equal opportunity, for that fairness, that objectivity. It is important that people do not look at gender but look at a proposal. That is the issue, idea and say that it is either good or bad. But this lens of, is it a man or a woman, should we go or should we not, needs to change. Then the cultural background also, we need to get rid of them. It is going to take time, years, because of the very male-dominated economies that we run. A lot of the decision-making positions are still predominantly male. If you look at the statistics in many organisations, even the ones that are doing well, you find that on the average, the really good ones, the gender target of 40 per cent. But drill down further, do a deep diagnosis of that 40 per cent, where are those 40 per cent, where are those 40 per cent sitting? Are they in leadership positions? Are they in the boardrooms, are they in the executives, where are they? Can they influence policy on their own? Can they influence change? So, today is very important for me. The theme is very, very apt. Why is it apt? Even no matter how few we are in leadership positions, we should never forget that mandate we carry, to influence change within your environment, whilst you are there.
How can this be done?
I don’t believe in sitting and complaining all the time. The few occasions when we have the opportunity to be sitting somewhere, what have we done as women? Have we just behaved like the men or have we said let us use this opportunity to do real good? It is not just about benefitting on discreet segment of the society but we need people to understand that once you ensure gender parity, inclusion and gender equality, then what you are doing is that you are developing the nation and helping the men as well. It is only sensible men, enlightened men who understand that you should enable women, empower women; then you are empowering your family, you are empowering the larger society and you are building the nation.
What does the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day mean to you?
What it means for me is that we must take the bull by the horns. We must stand up, we must act and we must try and make change happen. Change does not happen by itself. It happens when individuals or a group of people stand up and drive that change and make it happen. For me, I think that the International Women’s Day is a very significant day. It is a day for us to reflect and to remember that we are where we are, doing what we are doing, able to celebrate and even mark this day because of what those who had been before us had done.
For me, the International Women’s Day also takes me down memory lane to March 8th 1917, when a few women decided a hundred years ago to revolt in Russia, to make certain demands. People were starved, people were hungry. Men and women were being killed in the war that was ravaging at the time. So, women got up and said ‘enough is enough’. They were tired of seeing their husbands, brothers, sons being killed in wars. They were tired of seeing their daughters, their nieces, mothers dying of starvation and they decided to stand up and said enough of the ravaging and raging war and that they wanted to bring the first World War to an end.
They also wanted an end to the food shortages and starvation in Russia. And they wanted the end of the Czars, the empire. And do you know that it was because of what they did that led to the revolution? That was how certain things had a multiplier effect and certain things started changing. This was because of what the women did and the stand they took. And if we think of where women were at that time and where we are now, you find that there are so many things we could not do. For example, we could not vote, we could not stand for office. We could not even own properties, even if your parents wanted to give it to you, it had to be held by a brother, father or your husband. We didn’t even have control over our own bodies and determine whether we could take contraception or not. That’s how we were. Now, fast forward a hundred years to today and we can vote, we can stand for office like Hilary did with the highest office in the world. Never mind that she didn’t get there. Theresa May is at the helm in the United Kingdom, Angela Merkel is at the helm in Germany. Even in the last election in Nigeria here, we had a first female presidential candidate that stood for office. So, significant progress is being made. We can drive. There was a time when women were not even allowed to drive and there are still some countries in the world where it is still impossible. You can write a petition to court for the custody of our children.
There was a time you couldn’t do that. There was a time a woman got a divorce and the man determined what happened to the children. He could decide that you are not seeing your children again and there was nothing anybody could do about it. Today, we can determine what happens to the children. Today, we can determine how we want to procreate, so we have taken control finally.
