With the goal of bridging the gender representation gap by equipping women with the right tools to maximise their opportunities, the fifth edition of the She Can Conference recently brought together women from different walks of life, facilitating insightful sessions on levelling the playing field in male-dominated industries.
With over 4,000 attendees, the conference themed, ‘She Can Do More’, brought together high profile speakers including leadership expert, Fela Durotoye and wife, Tara; Chief Executive Officer, Optiva Capital, Jane Kimemia; actress, Shaffy Bello, Founder, Lifecard Investment, Grace Ofure Ibhakhonu and human resource professional, Olomade Ogungbenro.
Convener of the SheCan Nigeria Conference, Ezinne Ezeani, stated that the first step to elevating women and positioning them for a lifetime of impact is by transforming their mindset, adding that the SheCan movement was leading the drive to help more women have confidence in their abilities.
“We pride ourselves in empowering women through our initiatives by changing the way we think. For everybody to do more, your mindset needs to be positive and transformed, and to do that, we decided to run with the movement – SheCan Do More. The truth is when women understand that they have the power to become more, they take the fight to themselves by investing in their careers and in becoming better women. It is only that time that women can actually be seen as embracing every opportunity that comes to them,” she said.
CEO, Optiva Capital Partners, Kimemia, commended the initiative behind the conference, adding that it seeks to empower women to break barriers and cross boundaries by reminding them of their limitless potential.
Founder of Lifecard Investment, Ibhakhonu, said that there was a need for similar conferences to offer women incentives to continue to strive for excellence in their respective fields.
“Conferences like these are important because it helps women discover themselves and offers them great motivation by seeing other women doing exploits in different fields. They start to see that if one woman can do it, every other woman can do it. Very importantly, women should also learn that they aren’t limited to playing the second fiddle; they are as creative and determined as the men,” she said.
In her remarks, Nollywood actress, Bello, called for more women to embrace their uniqueness and channel it towards setting new strides.
“One important thing that women need to understand is that there’s always more to them that meets the eye. For most women, due to our upbringing and societal circumstances, we tend to turn off the voice that tells us that we can achieve whatever we set our minds to. We need to always motivate our women to go out there and do more,” Bello said.
