In line with this year’s International Women’s Day theme, Choose to Challenge —MTN Uganda and Project Girls for Girls on March 8th, hosted a webinar, under the topic — “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 World”. The webinar featured MTN Group Regional Vice President Southern and East Africa, Ms. Yolanda Cuba a the guest speaker.
The topic of discussion was deliberately focused on Women in Leadership based on the fact that executive leaders play a significant part in advancing gender equality. From helping forge an inclusive world where diversity is valued, to creating workplaces where women’s careers can thrive, leaders are responsible for driving positive change.
While MTN appreciates women and diversity, Project Girls for Girls aims at exposure to female leadership, mentorship, and access to education and training to boost the aspirations of young women and cultivate the capacity to lead.
Based on the topic of discussion, Cuba shared tips on how women can make the most of the covid-19 pandemic to their advantage rather than lowering their ambitions.
“Covid-19 forced me to upscale my ambition. Many people during a pandemic downscale their ambition. I thought I could do more even in the face of the pandemic,” said Cuba. She unsurprisingly rose to her new position as Vice President for the South and East African MTN Markets on January 1st, 2020 amidst the pandemic.
This, however was not a seamless journey for Cuba who had to virtually cultivate all her connections with her colleagues at MTN due to the pandemic that pushed people to remote working. However, with a clear vision and trust in her team to deliver, she has navigated through the pandemic in a new work place and gone ahead to excel.
Cuba urged women to be competent, consistent and courageous if they are to have an equal future to their male counterparts.
Besides encouraging women to align their life’s purpose to their career ambition, Cuba also encouraged them to surround themselves with motivated and competent women who will in turn support their vision.
She urged employers give women opportunities to take up senior roles as well as women leaders looking out for the young competent females in their workplaces —appealing to human resource managers to make a deliberate effort to close the payment parity gap between men and women in order to make the equal future a reality.
Here’s the full video to the webinar.
