Shippers’ Council Surpasses 35% Affirmative Action of UN on Gender Equality – NSC
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), says it has surpassed the 35 per cent affirmative action of the United Nations standard for women.
The Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr Emmanuel Jime, made this known at the 2023 edition of the International Women’s Day (IWD), organised by the council in conjunction with the Women in Logistics and Transport (WILAT), held at the council headquarters.
Jime, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Human Resources, NSC, Ada Okam, NSC, said that the council was gender friendly as reflected in the number of women representation in the top cadre of management.
“Precisely, women represent 45 per cent in the high-profile cadre as well as occupying other equally juicy positions in similar levels of representation.
“In line with embracing equity, the council has already trained over 65 percent of its female staff locally and abroad in different capacity building programmes to properly position them in the organisation,” he said.
Also speaking, the President, Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics (CILT), Mrs Mfon Usoro, said men are more in the maritime industry because the industry is a seagoing business.
Usoro, a former director general of the Nigerian Marítime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), said women must create and harness opportunities inherent in the industry in order to meet up with men operating in the sector, saying that there are technological innovations in maritime that require intelligence rather than physical strength.
Related Posts
“I am now very pleased about the theme of the IWD which is equity through technology and in technology we do not require physical strength because that is what men use as the job is strenuous and stressful.
“Technology is the brain so we need to create opportunities for ourselves and encourage our girls to be good in science and mathematics subjects because that is where you start if you want to be good at using technology. We will always have the rest of us who are arts inclined but those that have flair for sciences and mathematics, let’s us encourage them.”
“A lot of digitalisation is now in shipping, even being on the bridge, everything is digitalised. This is about encouraging ourselves and not being afraid that opportunities are not there. We are talking about creating opportunities for ourselves and we should not wait for people to create the opportunity for us.
Usoro stated that women should compete and break barriers in order to get to the top because several people are competing for fewer positions.
“Men also are hustling to get there and up there, there are few seats. So they are hustling and they would not remember to keep opportunities for us women.
We should create the opportunity and make them realise that we are hardworking, smart and intelligent and ready to contribute and not look for excuses to say because I am a woman, I will not work after 5.00 p.m.
Who goes to the top and stops work at 5.00 p.m, nobody. This is because there are other women who are ambitious, so you just need to rearrange yourself, do what the men do to get to the top,” she said.
Speaking earlier, the chairperson of Women in Logistics and Transport, WILAT, Khadijah Sheidu-Shabi, rued poor representation of women in the technical section of the maritime industry, even as she is seeking more women, especially in the technical aspect of the shipping industry.
She stated that women needed to be encouraged in their involvement in the maritime sector, saying women’s participation in the technical section of the nation’s maritime sector is discouraging.
Though, she acknowledged that the women in shipping are more represented in the management and administrative cadre than in the technical section.
“What has actually happened is that the male dominates the technical session of the shipping sector. We don’t have enough women in the sector like marine engineers, and seafarers. We don’t have a lot of them in the vessel as well. We want Pilots and we want women to skip boats.
“We don’t have enough women in that technical section, so we need to encourage our young women to take part in this aspect. Over 15 years ago the administrative percentage was about 7 per cent but today, it’s about 20 per cent in administration,” she stated.
