Nairobi: 12th October 2022: BAT has been named the gender mainstreaming champion for Africa at the 10th Accenture Gender Mainstreaming Awards.
During the awards ceremony held concurrently in Kenya and South Africa last Thursday, BAT’s East and Southern Africa unit scooped the top accolade for its efforts in accelerating gender diversity and inclusion in their organisation.
The Company’s East Africa unit with its manufacturing hub in Nairobi’s industrial Area was a category winner for Women Empowerment in the Workplace – East Africa and a 2nd finalist for Mainstreaming Gender and Disability.
Established in 2012, the Gender Mainstreaming Awards aim to encourage private sector buy-in towards achieving more meaningful representation of women in mainstream business.
Crispin Achola, BAT Kenya Managing Director & General Manager East African Markets, remarked: We are delighted and honoured to have been named the Africa champion in gender mainstreaming. While it is my belief and that of BAT that driving diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do, this external recognition is a testament that our vision is aligned with that of our stakeholders and society in general. At BAT, we are clear that women play a critical role in society and business. For our organisation, women are integral to the delivery of our purpose to build A Better Tomorrow™. We are proud of our progress in gender representation, with about +43% of senior management being women, and making up +40% of the population across the organisation.”
“As part of accelerated efforts to deliver our ambition, we target to achieve a 50:50 gender balance and enhance the representation of people with disabilities in our organisation to 5% by 2025. Overall, our Diversity & Inclusion agenda is anchored on four key pillars: Gender, Background, Identity, Persons with Disabilities and Generations – all of which are relevant when it comes to supporting women at the workplace.”