Gender parity requires active engagement 

Hope Murera, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of COMESA’s ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company), explains that one of the best ways to achieve gender parity in an organization is to partner with universities and to hire qualified women continuously and intentionally. 

Our mandate as a reinsurance company is to promote financial inclusion within the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) region and the rest of the continent. The West has an insurance penetration of around 7-8%. In Africa, it is still at 1%. One of my roles as the chief executive of a regional entity – indeed, one that was created for that purpose – is to develop inclusive products and services that help with integration. It starts with gender parity in the office.  

I have been at ZEP-RE for 20 years, but I have been able to have the largest impact within the company since I became chief executive in 2017. It is not easy to get women into the business at a senior level through…