eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) networking platform for female members — Women Chartered Accountants NetWork (WeCan), is targeting to increase women participation in the sector to 50 percent by 2021.
This comes as the representation of female chartered accountants especially in the public sector is still low, with figures showing only one female chartered accountant in Government.
In an interview with Business Weekly, WeCan chairperson Duduzile Shinya said the platform was created to encourage female participation in the sector, develop mentorship for upcoming accountants and provide a platform for female members to network as well as share ideas in order to promote female chartered accountants’ influence in the economy.
Shinya said there were vast opportunities for growth for females in the accounting profession especially within Government where participation is still limited.
“We still have few female chartered accountants especially in Government and this presents an opportunity for us to grow by venturing into that.
“As female chartered accountants, we are ready to take up the roles and be in boardrooms. We are ready to partner with Government in coming up with boardroom decisions that build our economy,” she said.
In light of this, WeCan is responsible for coming up with activities and initiatives aimed at promoting, profiling and developing female members for influence.
This includes activities and initiatives to promote female students and member development. The organisation is rolling out a programme in tertiary institutions and schools that should help inculcate leadership qualities in females at an early age.
Shinya indicated WeCan was, however, not a lobby group, but an organisation that seeks to boost confidence in females, promote their participation not only in accounting firms but in their varying roles and sectors.
This, she added, would help boost their participation and contribution to the economic agenda and development.
Globally, organisations have “reasonable” number of females but by far remain the junior partners, both as business owners or business leaders, yet studies show they have potential to grow businesses into vast corporations.
Global think tank, the Credit Suisse Research Institute has recently reviewed the performance of boards over a six-year period and found that those companies with women on the board had a higher return on equity, lower gearing, higher price/book value and better than average growth.
Shinya said: “Generally, we are seeing a global shift with companies trying to strike a balance on the male and female representations in leadership roles.
“This is what we want as well for females here in Zimbabwe. If you have made it as a woman, hand-hold another who is still growing to build her up. That way, we can grow together and build our economy,” she said.
In relation to accounting profession, Shinya said WeCan had generated interest among female accountants with figures showing a steady increase in female ICAZ membership.
