By David Akinmola
Rashidat Adebisi believes thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. This simple philosophy is at the heart of her leadership, driving her every day to give back her time, talent, and energy to develop leaders with inclusive mindsets and a business environment that gives everyone equitable access to opportunities.
A seasoned professional, tech enthusiast, and DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belongingness) advocate, Adebisi is currently the Chief Client Officer (CCO) and a board member of AXA Mansard Insurance Plc. With over two decades of experience under her belt, she is responsible for ensuring the global insurance giant, AXA, achieves its ambition of going beyond corporate insurance to become a much more impactful organisation in Nigeria.
Before this role, Rashidat served as the Chief Distribution Officer, leading the retail solutions division and playing a pivotal role in devising and executing strategies for retail distribution.
Rashidat holds a degree in Business Accounting from the University of Lincolnshire & Humberside and is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant of the UK (FCCA). She is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ACA), a Chartered Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute UK, and an Associate Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN). Additionally, she has completed a Diploma in Financial Strategy from Said Business School, University of Oxford, and a Senior Management Programme at the reputable Lagos Business School.
What does ‘Accelerating Action’ for Women mean to you personally and professionally?
For me, accelerating action for women is about moving beyond rhetoric and taking deliberate, measurable steps to bridge the gender gap in leadership, opportunities, and economic participation.
As a society, we are making considerable progress in closing the gap across socio-cultural and economic spheres. But there is still a long way to go. World Economic Forum predicts it will take until the year 2158 before we can fully close the gender gap.
Here in Nigeria, the women’s socio-economic conditions gap also mirrors the global challenge. According to the IMF, women account for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s extremely poor”.
Also, our labour force participation rate stands at 56 per cent, compared to 80 per cent for men, and the gender wage gap remains a stark reality, with women earning 45 per cent less than men in similar roles.
In leadership, we make up only 24 per cent of directors and 3 per cent of Chief Executive Officers of the top 30 capitalised companies on NGX, according to a 2021 KPMG report.
All these highlight the disparity in our socio-economic representation. So, accelerating action for me is about the urgency and importance of efforts to eliminate age-long barriers and biases that slow gender parity. It is a call to ensure that those coming behind us face fewer barriers.
Professionally, for me and my colleagues at AXA Mansard, accelerating action reinforces our conviction that gender equity is not just a moral and ethical responsibility, it is a business imperative that has differentiated us in the market. This has positioned us as not just an employer of choice but a customer-first company.
At AXA Mansard, we prioritize gender inclusion, knowing that diverse teams drive better innovation and performance, and we have seen the results in our business and the lives of our people.
In your journey to becoming Chief Client Officer, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced as a woman in leadership, and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges was breaking through unconscious biases. But I have never dwelled on them because I understand its societal constructs that fuel these biases. I have also learned that these biases are not peculiar to women. Younger talents face barriers with older ones, older talents are assumed to be old-school and rigid, physical disabilities deprive people of opportunities, and the list of these imbalances goes on.
So, as I grew in my career, I focused more on the root causes of these biases and do what I can to dispel them. Thankfully, I work in an organisation like AXA Mansard that is sensitive to these disparities, so it is easier to drive an all-inclusive, equitable workplace that makes everyone feel that they are part of something bigger.
So in our firm, women, men, young, old, parents, single, or physically challenged, all come to AXA Mansard daily for one purpose: “acting for human progress by protecting what matters”. In actualising this purpose, we believe no one is better than another; every one of us just having unique roles to play. Hence, if we don’t encourage diversity of ideas, how can we advance human progress? We are not driving progress for men or women; we are working to bring about human progress. Therefore, if human beings are diverse, true progress for them must be driven by a diverse organisation.
You mentioned in the KPMG report that there is a huge gap in women’s leadership in corporate Nigeria. What key mindsets or strategies helped you rise to the top?
First, I had to embrace the mindset that my career growth was my responsibility, so I took intentional steps to seek knowledge and prepare myself for leadership opportunities.
Second, I took up responsibilities that were outside my comfort zone. I expanded my scope beyond finance functions to include strategy, sales, technology, HR, compliance and so on. These exposed me to seeing the big picture and I learnt a lot about different roles, expectations and success factors. It also provided me opportunity to learn and access mentors and sponsors who became very instrumental to my growth because they had seen my abilities and capabilities up close. They were willing to bet on me.
Finally, continuous learning helped too. I remained curious about everything – new technologies, systems, industry trends, and evolving workplace. All these helped. But in hindsight, I will say I just kept adding value to myself, and as with value, it always attracts opportunities.
Beyond corporate policies, what cultural or societal shifts do you think are necessary to truly close the gender gap in Nigeria?
I think the first place to begin is our homes. We need to address gender stereotypes early, starting with how we raise girls and boys. I was brought up with the mantra “everything is possible if you believe” gender was not a limitation in my family.
Secondly, we must normalise female leadership roles by ensuring that success is not gender-defined.
Lastly and so important is that we need more male allies who actively support and advocate for gender equity in the workplace and at home.
How do you balance being a high-profile female business leader with your responsibilities, and what advice do you have for women trying to do the same?
Balance for women has been so topical; I would rather focus on integration and not balance In my career so far, to ensure the right integration, I have focused on prioritization and accepting that one can’t do everything at once or have it all. I’ve learned to delegate, create support systems, and be present for my family in the moments that matter. My advice to women is to seek help when needed, manage their energy wisely, and cut themselves some slacks. Its okay not to have it all figured out.
What are some of the specific policies or initiatives you’ve introduced at AXA Mansard to promote gender diversity and Inclusion?
We are a deliberately inclusive organisation at AXA. So, our approach to people has always been about the peculiarities of everyone, notwithstanding gender. We do this under a broad programme tagged “We Care”. This programme is one of AXA’s key milestones for the 2024 – 2026 strategic plans. It is a programme designed to support our workforce at different life stages and during moments that matter.
For example, while we have implemented policies such as menstrual leave, maternity programmes and targeted leadership development programs for women, we also have
increased our paternity leave days to 10, opened our IVF programme to male and female employees, and caregiver leave is also available to both genders who have ageing parents and want to spend time with them. Our creche is also open to male and female employees, so our daddies can bring the little ones to the office.
We have very good feedback on how our smart work policy is supporting all cadre and groups of our employees. Working parents spend more time with their families; younger employees can engage in other passions, and our employees spend less time in traffic – this is even helping us reduce our carbon footprint as an organization.
Have you observed any measurable impact from these initiatives, whether in leadership representation, employee engagement, or business performance?
Absolutely. We have seen more women taking up senior leadership roles and improved employee engagement scores among our employees. Across our employee cadre, we would be one of Nigeria’s few corporates with a well-balanced male-to-female ratio.
And we can correlate this to our business performance. We are an organisation constantly working to mirror the diversity of the market we serve. This has helped us greatly in innovating solutions for our customers, which has rewarded us with their continued patronage and loyalty.
What are some of the biggest barriers to workplace diversity that organisations still struggle with, and how can they be tackled?
Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, is one of the biggest barriers. These biases range from gender to qualification, age, physical abilities, social status, and the list goes on depending on context.
Tackling it requires that leaders are deliberate about investing resources, enabling processes, and prioritising diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. This must also be woven into the cultural fabric of the organisation.
For company leadership, many more companies need to implement better-structured processes as well as consider diverse individuals, especially women, during their board recruitment and succession planning processes. While this doesn’t mean that women should be handed underserving opportunities, it means that organizations must invest in structured policies that can produce as many women leaders as men.
For example, data shows that while the male and female ratio is somewhat balanced at the entry-level, the female ratio starts to dwindle as we move up the hierarchy. This is due to family responsibilities, marriage, motherhood and so on. Organizations must recognise that these are women’s peculiarities. Hence, they must be deliberate about programmes that support women in integrating their work and life at these important life stages.
AXA is a global brand. How do local market realities in Nigeria shape the company’s approach to gender diversity and Inclusion?
For example, we have a 50-50 gender balance on our Executive Committee Membership. Also, we have deliberate programmes that create equal opportunities for both genders. Lastly, our increased paternity leave days under the We Care programme also supports the perspective that the arrival of a newborn should not be the exclusive responsibility of the woman. Men, too, deserve the joy, excitement, and responsibilities of fatherhood.
What practical steps should male leaders take to become allies in gender equity and Inclusion within their organizations?
I think we already have male allies. It is not just women that are creating opportunities for other women. Men have been at the tables too and facilitated the current growth we have. They are part of the processes and decision-making systems that have produced a lot of high-flying women in business, politics and the professional circles today.
As I have said, there is still a lot to be done, but what need to be done are the collective responsibilities of all of us in business and society.
Granted, women have faced age-long marginalisation in different areas, but the solutions to bridging these socio-economic gaps are not those of the male alone; women whose palm kernels are broken for them by benevolent spirits should not also forget to be humble. If we make accelerating action the responsibilities of both women and men, we can move faster toward gender parity in our societies.
Some companies see diversity and Inclusion as corporate buzzwords rather than strategic priorities. How can we shift this mindset in Nigerian businesses?
There is a saying that no one can back a child better than the parents. Suffice to say that no business can create solutions for a diverse society better than a diverse company. Diversity is not just a moral responsibility; it’s a strategic advantage. The better the diversity in an organization, the better it can serve its customers, and the more it can create value for its stakeholders.
One of the reasons we will remain the most innovative insurance company in Nigeria is our diversity. We have created solutions for every segment of the market, leveraging our diversity. For example, the mix of tech, technical, mass affluent in addition to mid to low-income market understanding and skills drives our inclusion products. Today, we provide healthcare insurance for over 1.5 million low-income Nigerians who could have been deprived of quality healthcare if we hadn’t had such a diverse mix of market skills. On the other hand, a good number of these 1.5 million are also buying insurance for the first time. In a market like ours where low insurance penetration is what keeps everyone awake, you can see how a single solution we have created is solving a market, industry, personal and business problem. That’s the ripple effect diversity brings to business.
So, either insurance products that give you access to international coverage, financial solutions that fit every aspect of personal and professional growth, or healthcare insurance that provides primary or international healthcare coverage, you have a basket full of options with us. And we are able to do this just because we are deliberate about diversity and inclusion.
The financial services industry, including insurance, has historically been male-dominated. What would you say to young women considering a career in this sector?
I will say our industry is evolving, and there is room for women to prosper. We have a number of leading insurance companies with strong female leadership. Also, there are more females in technical roles.
My advice is that anyone coming into the sector should be excellent at her craft, build relationships, and stay resilient. There is no ceiling that cannot be broken with determination, value, and focus.
Finally, what is your vision for the future of gender inclusion in Nigeria, and what call to action would you give to business leaders looking to accelerate progress?
My vision is a Nigeria where leadership is defined by capability, not gender, where every woman, regardless of background, has access to opportunities that can make our society better. My call to leaders across sectors is that Inclusion is not charity but a business strategy, and the time to act is today.
