Sterling Bank has thrown its weight behind the Nigeria Gender Country Programme (NGCP), a private-sector initiative aimed at breaking down barriers that limit women’s participation in employment, business and leadership.

The programme, anchored by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in partnership with the Nigerian Exchange Group and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, brings together businesses, financial institutions, regulators and development partners to develop practical measures for improving women’s participation in Nigeria’s economy.

Speaking at the introduction of the programme in Lagos, Temi Dalley, Group Executive, Human Capital and Corporate Services at Sterling Financial Holdings Company PLC, said the success of gender inclusion efforts would depend largely on how well organisations translated policies into action.

Dalley said women were often lost at critical stages of their careers, particularly during the transition into motherhood, at middle-management level and when women entrepreneurs struggled to move promising businesses beyond the early stages.

She said organisations needed to identify and address those gaps rather than relying solely on policies or access to funding.

“At Sterling, we built initiatives like the Momship Programme precisely because we saw that we were hiring competent women at entry level but losing them at exactly the point where the organisation should have been getting the most out of their capabilities,” she said.

According to her, effective inclusion requires mentorship, sponsorship, skills development, flexible work arrangements and an environment where workplace discrimination and micro aggressions are taken seriously.

She added that similar support was needed outside the workplace, particularly for women-led businesses that require not only capital but also knowledge, networks, mentorship and organisational structures to grow.

“Nigeria cannot grow around the productive capacity of half its population; it has to grow through it,” Dalley said.

The NGCP is designed to complement the Nigeria Country Gender Profile and Roadmap to Equality 2030, developed by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in collaboration with the African Development Bank and UN Women.

Speaking at the programme’s introduction, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, urged businesses to make gender inclusion part of their core strategies.

Sanwo-Olu said companies should adopt gender-smart policies not merely to comply with regulations but to improve their competitiveness, adding that organisations should establish measurable targets to monitor progress and ensure accountability.

Similarly, the Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, represented by her Special Assistant on Child Protection and Projects, Aishatu Digili, described the programme as a collective effort to move from promises to measurable results.

The initiative provides a framework for private-sector organisations to turn Nigeria’s broader gender-equality objectives into practical interventions that can help more women enter the workforce, build businesses, advance into leadership positions and remain economically active.

For Sterling, the focus is on creating sustainable pathways through which women can participate and progress across different sectors of the economy, with greater emphasis on practical support and measurable outcomes.