Safaricom Partners With Mowgli Mentoring To Bridge Gender Diversity Gap

A partnership between Safaricom and Mowgli Mentoring, a specialist mentoring organisation focused on driving inclusive economic and social change, has seen 42 female mentors graduate from a year-long Safaricom Mentorship Programme, increasing their opportunity to advance their careers.

Safaricom is committed to maintaining gender diversity and the programme, established in 2018, is part of the service provider’s Women in Leadership initiative that seeks to grow the number of women in leadership positions within the organisation.

“As we strive to achieve our gender diversity agenda, one challenge is to deal with a leaking talent pipeline. We continue to challenge ourselves to establish sustainable ways of addressing existing talent gaps and through this programme, we aim to equip our talent with the mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets to succeed,” said Paul Kasimu, Chief Human Resources Officer, Safaricom.

While Safaricom has attained 50:50 gender representation across the entire workforce, the percentage of women in Senior Management roles currently stands at 35% and through the mentorship programme, Safaricom seeks to grow this percentage to 40% by 2025 through creating a pool of talent ready to assume leadership roles.

Implemented by Mowgli Mentoring, the programme saw 14 female senior leaders trained as mentors who in turn supported the personal and professional development of 28 female mentees selected from the organisation’s pool of future leaders.

“Workplace mentorship has been proven to develop and retain top talent which in effect strengthens an organisation’s leadership pipeline at both the senior and junior levels. Within this programme, we supported mentees to explore ideas, gain clarity of their goals and take steps towards them, build their confidence, communicate more effectively, increase efficiencies within their departments, and rise through the ranks,” Said Kathleen Bury, Chief Executive Officer, Mowgli Mentoring.

To date, Mowgli Mentoring has run over 115 mentoring programs across 17 countries within Africa, the Middle East and the United Kingdom, training over 2200 mentors and mentees through a unique 360-degree mentoring approach that supports both personal and professional development.