Rising woman: Empowering women, embracing diversity

Mwananchi Communication Ltd

What you need to know:

With over 19 years of practice in the banking and other sectors, chief executive officer of NMB Bank Plc, Ruth Zaipuna, shares her professional journey. She credits her milestones to her zeal and sheer will to become a corporate leader in Tanzania. The Citizen’s Rising Woman reporter Salome Gregory interviewed her. Excerpts from the interview:

Before focusing on my personal vulnerability story, first I would like to point out that vulnerability has traditionally been viewed as a weakness in the workplace. I once belonged in this category, until I came to discover that being vulnerable at times represents the ability to show people that I am not perfect, that I can also make mistakes, and I for one don’t have all the answers. In 2006 working for PwC, and about to have my third child, I became quite ill. I felt that this was unfair to my team and decided to resign from my position as senior associate. I gathered courage to speak to one of the partners. To my surprise, they understood my concerns and agreed to the decision. Six months later, I was pleasantly surprised to receive flowers from PwC on the day my son was born. A further three months later, I got an even bigger surprise when PwC asked me to go back to work and was promoted on the day I rejoined the firm.

In 2015, we formed a platform called ‘Women Arise’ aimed at empowering women leaders through capacity building in a number of interventions such as identification and mentorship of female talents, targeted training which focused on preparing female staff for leadership positions, making the workplace user friendly for female staff being more productive and making sure we have policies that support work-life balance. Through ‘Women Arise’, a number of our women leaders got exposure to attend a number of courses including at Association of Tanzania Employers’ Female Future program, Women’s World Banking in USA and Rabo Women Development in the Netherlands. We have a flexible working policy, which enables women to have a work-life balance, but also a burring room at our headquarters that allows female staff to take care of their children in a work setting - all these are meant to create a better working world for female staff.