The Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) together with other partners including the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Barclays Bank of Kenya and New Faces New Voices on Tuesday launched the 2017 Board Diversity Report of Publicly Listed Companies in Kenya.
The 2017 survey is very comprehensive as it measures diversity beyond gender and includes age, education, profession and nationality. The report also highlights the lack of female leaders in the industry in as much as there has been a significant improvement over the last few years.
The event brought senior executives together face-to-face to discuss how listed companies are working to attract, retain and develop more women and youth into senior corporate positions and the impact it has on their business.
The event hosted a vibrant panel representing the companies who participated in the case study report, Barclays Bank of Kenya, The Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) and New Faces New Voices; a Pan African advocacy group backed by the Graca Marcel trust.
Key takeaways from the event;
- In Kenya, when it came to professions, finance based career people were more present in the boardrooms than any other professions with accountants, auditors, bankers, and investment sector professionals taking over 40% of the slots.
- Nationality diversity in Kenya was also measured and 62% of the listed companies had at least one non-Kenyan in their board which compares with the 74% global average.
- On board diversity influence on corporate performance, gender diversity when female representation is at least 25% was found to have a positive influence on the organizations’ compounded annual growth rate of assets and revenues.
- Barclays Bank board which has a 50% gender representation makes the most gender diverse of any listed firm in Kenya.
- The average entry age into the boardroom averaged 50 years globally. A significant difference in entry age between the genders was noted with female board members entering as 48 years while their male counterpart had to wait until they are 52 years.
- There is lack of Millennials in the boardroom. Millennials make up the world’s biggest demographic group and are expected to make up 50% of the workforce by 2020.
Twitter Conversation – #BoardDiversityKe
"The Most successful companies like Google, Facebook & the rest understand the value of Board Diversity" #BoardDiversityKe Bob Karina
— Kenyanwallstreet (@kenyanwalstreet) July 18, 2017
The average age of Kenyan board members stands at 55.8 years with 52.5% being between 45 and 49 years old. #BoarddiversityKE @NSEKenya
— Barclays Bank Kenya (@Barclays_Kenya) July 18, 2017
The average boardroom age globally is 60.6 years and Africa has some of the youngest board members #BoardDiversityKe Report
— Kenyanwallstreet (@kenyanwalstreet) July 18, 2017
Barclays Bank of Kenya Boardroom
√ 50% Female
√ 50% Male
√ Average Age 51 years
???? @Barclays_Kenya #BoardDiversityKe— Kenyanwallstreet (@kenyanwalstreet) July 18, 2017
Kenya leads in Africa in gender diversity on boards says @AfDB_Group #BoardDiversityKE @KIMKenya @NSEKenya @NFNV_ORG @Barclays_Kenya pic.twitter.com/i7AN67eyIi
— Nuru Mugambi (@NuruMugambi) July 18, 2017
