IWD: NGX, companions ring closing gong for gender equality 

Nigerian Change Group Plc, in collaboration with Central Securities Clearing System Plc and Ladies in Administration, Enterprise and Public Service, convened leaders from throughout the private and non-private sectors to commemorate Worldwide Ladies’s Day 2026 via the worldwide Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative, on Tuesday.

Aligned with the UN Ladies theme, “Rights, Justice, Motion – For All Ladies and Ladies,” the occasion, held through the Nigerian Change Closing Gong Ceremony, served as a name for sustained motion to advance gender equality and broaden girls’s participation in financial management.

Delivering the welcome deal with, the Group Managing Director/Chief Govt Officer of NGX Group, Temi Popoola, emphasised the crucial function capital markets should play in shaping inclusive financial development.

“Capital markets are highly effective engines for financial transformation. When girls take part totally as leaders, entrepreneurs, and buyers, markets change into stronger, deeper, and extra resilient. At NGX Group, we stay dedicated to advancing insurance policies, partnerships, and platforms that broaden alternatives for girls and speed up inclusive prosperity,” he stated.

Delivering particular remarks, the Minister of State for Overseas Affairs, Honourable Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, emphasised NGX Group and its companions for advancing gender inclusion via the initiative.

“I congratulate NGX Group and its companions for sustaining this vital world motion and for championing gender equality inside our monetary ecosystem. Collectively, allow us to proceed to open the doorways of alternative so the following technology of girls can lead with confidence and assist rework our world,” she stated.

The First Woman of Imo State, Chioma Uzodimma, known as for collective motion to broaden alternatives for girls and ladies.
“As we sound the NGX Gong in the present day, let it symbolise our shared pledge to guard each woman youngster, broaden alternatives for each lady, and construct an inclusive economic system the place each lady and woman can flourish,” she stated.

The Chief Govt Officer of Nigerian Change, Jude Chiemeka, emphasised the significance of broadening girls’s participation within the capital market ecosystem.

“When extra girls take part out there as buyers and professionals, we deepen the market and strengthen the muse for sustainable development,” he stated.

Talking on the function of growth finance establishments in advancing gender inclusion, Claude Owona, Regional Trade Supervisor for Monetary Establishments on the Worldwide Finance Company for Central Africa and Anglophone West Africa, emphasised the financial advantages of gender equality.

“When ladies and men take part equally within the economic system, our societies operate higher, and our economies change into extra affluent,” she stated.

Media entrepreneur and founding father of EbonyLife Media, Mo Abudu, inspired girls to pursue their ambitions with readability and confidence. “For me, it comes all the way down to 4 issues: function, ardour, progress, and energy. Discover your function, let ardour gasoline your journey, keep constant even when challenges come up, and most significantly, stand firmly in your energy. Don’t shrink,” she stated.

Award-winning actor and filmmaker. Funke Akindele, urged girls to pursue their ambitions with self-discipline and braveness.

“To each lady on the market, you are able to do it. However past the phrases, we should put within the laborious work, construct construction into our companies, and do issues the best method. It takes braveness to take step one even whenever you’re not prepared, braveness to remain constant when nobody is clapping, and braveness to carry firmly to your imaginative and prescient,” she stated.

PidomNigeria On-line reviews that the Ring the Bell for Gender Equality ceremony celebrated the contributions of girls to Nigeria’s capital markets and the broader economic system whereas reinforcing the necessity for sustained motion to shut gender gaps in management, finance, and alternative.

The 2026 version was organised in collaboration with world companions together with the Worldwide Finance Company, UN Ladies, the World Federation of Exchanges, the United Nations World Compact, and the Sustainable Inventory Exchanges Initiative.

The occasion additionally featured the participation of feminine board members of NGX Group of corporations, Ojinika Olaghere, Fatima Wali-Abdulrahman, Lilian Olubi, Ummahani Ahmad Amin, Amina Mohammed, and Fiona Ahime, alongside key ecosystem leaders, together with Onome Komolafe, Divisional Head, Enterprise Providers and Consumer Expertise, CSCS Plc; Jumoke Olaniyan, Group Chief Technique Officer, NGX Group; Uto Ukpanah, Chairperson, UN World Compact Community Nigeria; and Mrs Omowumi Akingbohungbe, Govt Director, WIMBIZ.

Because the closing gong sounded, stakeholders echoed a typical message: advancing gender equality requires greater than dialogue. It requires sustained collaboration, deliberate motion, and a collective dedication throughout governments, establishments, and markets to broaden alternatives for girls and ladies.

Via initiatives comparable to Ring the Bell for Gender Equality, NGX Group and its companions proceed to champion inclusive markets, recognising that empowering girls is crucial to constructing stronger capital markets and a extra resilient economic system.