Men form only 40 percent of SIC Insurance workforce

Men form only 40 percent of the workforce of the SIC Insurance Company PLC while women constitute 60 percent, but the men control 65 percent of the leadership position and women 35 percent.

Data available to the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) indicated that in spite of women forming the majority of the workforce only four out of 16 management positions were occupied by women with three being area managers.

Meanwhile Mrs. Cynthia Kwarteng Tufuor, Tema Regional Manager has indicated that due to the natural qualities of women, they often ventured into the insurance industry as the work involved marketing and convincing clients to roll onto existing schemes.

Mrs. Tufuor stated this at the eleventh monthly stakeholder engagement seminar organized by the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office which is a platform rolled out for state and non-state actors to address national issues.

The eleventh stakeholder engagement was also used to climax the GNA Tema Regional Office’s month-long activities to mark the 2022 International Women’s Day celebration and also mark the first anniversary of the stakeholder engagement.

Speaking on the topic: “Prospects of women in the insurance industry: Women’s contribution to the SIC Mission,” Mrs. Tufuor noted that “women are born with some natural traits such as good listening skills, ability to form relationships which is a core skill in the insurance companies”.

She said such qualities included good listening skills, the ability to easily create relationships, as well as persuasive skills.

The Tema SIC Regional Manager with oversight responsibilities over the Volta and Eastern Regions said it was about time that conscious effort must be made by women to push themselves into corporate leadership by upgrading their knowledge and skills in whatever profession they found themselves.

She stressed that a well-educated woman that possesses all the required skills, knowledge, confidence, and ability to excel could grab leadership opportunities whenever the need be.

Mrs. Tufuor said, “Women who are empowered with the knowledge and skills will be more productive and well-honoured at whatever working field they found themselves, if women can uphold their skills, they could rise to the occasion when they are called upon.”

According to her women in SIC resolved to acquire the necessary education and skills when they realized that fewer women were in leadership.

Women’s participation in leadership roles, she noted helped in the advancement of gender equality and affected both the range and quality of policies formulated for the betterment of society.

She urged women to support and encourage each other and serve as mentors for the younger ones to aim high, adding that because of lack of mentorship, most women veered off their chosen careers to others.

Mrs. Tufuor said if women who have gone through the process of reaching the top could carry others along, most fields of professions would have a good number of women in leadership in the next five years and beyond.

She encouraged mothers, married women, and young girls who might have gotten pregnant in their teenage years not to use that as an excuse not to excel, stressing that “pregnancy is not an excuse, you still make it.”