The 2022 Women on Boards Indicator in Egypt recorded 19.7% up from 16.7% in 2021. The annual report said that sustaining the 3% annual increase pattern in the past three years would enable the analyzed categories to reach the 2030 strategy goal of 30% women on boards by 2026.
“Progress in women on board representation has been achieved across the four categories included in the 2022 report. The non-banking financial sector (NBFS) companies led with 22% female representation in 2022 compared to 18.6% in 2021. The Egyptian Exchange listed companies recorded 17.3% female representation in 2022 compared to 15.2% in 2021. The banking sector reported 16.5% female representation in 2022 compared to 14.2% in 2021. Finally, the public enterprise sector realized an improvement to 9.3% in 2022 compared to 8.1% in 2021,” according to the report.
The AUC report mentioned that the 2022 annual monitoring report covers the gender data and information of almost 1,000 companies and banks, with 236 EGX-listed companies, 34 banks, 676 NBFS companies, and 82 public sector enterprise companies (holding and affiliate companies).
The report said that the number of companies and banks witnessed minor changes between 2021 and 2022, except for the number of holding and affiliated companies in the public enterprise sector. This sector witnessed significant changes in recent years due to the implementation of reform and merger measures which contributed to the decrease in the number of holding and affiliate companies.
“In 2022, the maritime and land transport holding and affiliate companies were transferred to the Ministry of Transport, resulting in a significant decline in the total number of companies, “according to the report.
The report mentioned that the total number of women on boards across the four categories has witnessed positive progression.
The report showed that the number of women on boards of EGX-listed companies increased from 289 to 324 between 2021 and 2022, with a positive growth rate of 12.1%.
The banking sector witnessed an increase in the number of women on boards from 41 in 2021 to 54 in 2022, with a 31.7% growth rate.
“The number of women on boards of public enterprise sector companies increased by a growth rate of 22.2% and from 35 women in 2021 to 44 in 2022. The number of women on boards of the non-banking financial sector has also realized positive growth, increasing from 712 in 2021 to 924 in 2022,” the report stated.
The AUC report mentioned that the 2022 distribution of companies and banks by the number of women on boards showed an increase in the number of organizations with one and two women on board. The two women on board percentages were boosted between 2021 and 2022 across most categories under study.
The report continued that this shift could have resulted from effective compliance with regulatory decrees and decisions, necessitating the placement of two women on boards.
In 2020, the FRA issued a raft of rules that support and promote more gender-balanced boards. These rules were further complemented with decree No. 109 of 2021, stating the necessity of having a women representation of 25% or at least two women on the boards of EGX-listed companies, in addition to decree No. 110 of 2021 obligating having a women representation of 25% or at least two women board members on the boards of the non-banking financial sector.
Also, the central bank of Egypt issued a decision in 2021 stating the necessity of having at least two women members on the banks’ boards, effective 2021. It is worth mentioning that some companies and banks believe in diversity and already had two or more women on board before issuing these decisions. On the other hand, companies and banks with zero women on board followed shrinking patterns across all categories.
The Egyptian Exchange listed companies with zero women on board decreased from 53.3% in 2019 to only 10.2% in 2022. In the banking sector, the percentage declined from 26.5% in 2019 to 8.8% in 2022.
“Moreover, the non-banking financial sector (NBFS) companies with zero women on board reached 15.1% in 2022 compared to 58.8% in 2019. The public enterprise sector witnessed the least decline; from 72.5% in 2019 to 52.4% in 2022,” according to the report.
