Rekik Bekele got a blog coverage on GOGLA‘s news website on International Women’s Day 2022 to honor some of the remarkable women leaders who are enabling more accessible, clean energy access.
Eva Roig, GOGLA’s Media and Campaigns Manager, had an interview with Rekik, as detailed below.
Eva Roig: How do you approach gender at your organization?
Rekik: Whenever possible, we hire women. Women are every bit as ready as mean to collaborate, roll up their sleeves and do any job. Sometimes even more so. That flexibility is particularly important in a small company like ours. One of our leaders is male and he wants to hire more women, for the same reasons.
Eva Roig: Do you know the composition of your workforce and how do you incentivize women to grow within the organisation?
Rekik: We have 10 employees right now and we are evenly split, gender-wise. Our aim is to continue this way. One of the key policies we have to attract and retain women talent is the flexibility that we offer. As a mother of two children myself, I understand the importance of flexibility, of being able to work remotely when it’s needed. We offer maternity leave as well. In return, we find that women think highly of the company, they are engaged and great workers.
Eva Roig: What do you think has been the impact you have had on the sector as a woman CEO/Founder?
Rekik: At my first job, I was the only woman working alongside six men. As an engineer, I did installation work side by side with men. Many women my age were already married, so it was surprising to many people in the rural areas where we went to see what I was doing, as an ‘unattached’ woman. There was certain inspiration generated by it too, a suggestion of alternative ways.
I spent one year living and working in rural Lalibela. It was not a very normal thing to do for many women. My family didn’t want me to go. They had safety concerns and people are not used to women living on their own. There are prejudices, especially in rural areas, but also in the city when you go out alone at night as a woman. My brother would come to pick me up at the station so I didn’t have to walk home alone. In Lalibela at first, there were rumours about me but I gained the respect of the community by doing my job. You can only know what happens when you try.
As I progressed professionally, I started receiving invitations to talk at the University of Debre Birhan, in order to encourage women to start engineering degrees. Over the years, I have also spoken with graduate students to provide my experience and give them the message: daring to pursue your beliefs is the way to make a strong impact.
Even now, we are generally only one or two women in the private energy sector; men are still in the majority. There are many female graduates in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Women in Energy (EWiEN) association has ambitions to engage them – but it hasn’t yet tapped into the potential they could bring to the sector. My hope is that if women see others be successful enough, especially financially, there will be more women coming forward as entrepreneurs and more women in energy. They need role models.
Eva Roig: What do you think are the key initiatives the sector can take to enable further women’s involvement both in the workforce and as customers?
Rekik: I think, as an industry, we have to make investors understand the need for PAYGO, especially with higher proportions of female customers. Once they start paying and seeing the benefits, all users – but especially women – feel empowered to continue buying other products.
To increase the number of women employees, companies need to understand the real benefits a balanced workforce offers, instead of just complying with an arbitrary requirement or quota. Often, it also requires more effort to hire women. Recently, we posted a job offer and received 200 applications. 20 of the applications were from women; only 5 of these sent their resumé, and only three came to the interview. Sometimes you have to go back to the start, attract women through the right channels. Networks like EWIEN are also great at recruiting female talent. I would also like to see more women featured, women’s contributions made visible, and not just on 8 March each year. Role models are so important.
The whole interview can be found on the GOGLA news website.
