Africell Celebrates International Women’s Day
Africell mobile company on Thursday 7th March 2024 hosted prominent women and eminent personalities at its Headquarters, Wilberforce village in celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day.
ChibLee Francis Kamara, Deputy Commissioner of Labour laid emphasis on the theme for this year’s celebration “Invest in women, accelerate progress”. He cautioned that workers have rights, while employers have the obligations of upholding such right.
Assistant Director in the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs , Ms. Hannah Lahai-Robinson stated that IWD was set aside to celebrate the strides made by women, and also to address barriers women are facing, creating awareness on gender equality.
She stressed that sexual harassment should be highly condemned, while gender equality should be highly placed on remunerations and added “We must all work together. We must Put value in women for rapid advancement and development. Women are still facing challenges in the workplace in relation to gender parity and financial inclusion. Africell is doing well when it comes to women’s empowerment.”
UN Senior Human Rights Advisor in Sierra Leone, Uchenna Emelonye said “We can only accelerate profit and progress if we invest in women. Society has placed heavy weight on women. There are Internal dynamics between men and women and their should be no room for discrimination of women.”
He assured of the UN unwavering commitment to continue working for women’s empowerment and added “It is your right to make yourself assertive.”
In his statement, Managing Director of Africell SL, Shadi Gerjawi highlighted the benefits of empowering women. He outlined that women are distracted by too many things, and suggested that the subject must be changed from women’s empowerment to gender globalization. “Government is saying 30% Quota but for us at Africell, we are working on 50%,” he said and reiterated Africell’s commitment in placing more women in management positions.
He added that over years, Africell have been investing in women with specific managerial roles assigned to female staff in the company.
Sia Lajaku-Williams from the International Labour Organization (ILO), stated that the ILO is a specialized UN Agency and revealed that Sierra Leone became a member of the said organization in 1961.
She highlighted enhancing social dialogues and standard settings as very key in their daily operations and disclosed that Sierra Leone has signed 45 Conventions.
At the conclusion of event, some of the top management female staff at Africell were called upon to make commitments as a way of inspiring junior colleagues.
