Closing the gender gap and promoting visibility from women leaders on the African continent is key to making positive and lasting socio-economic change happen.
Naike Moshi is a strong, energetic and passionate leader. She is the country director of CVPeople Tanzania and award-winning founder and CEO of Women in Management Africa (WIMA), an NGO that aims to increase visibility for women leaders and celebrates their achievements.
Born in 1983, Naike spent most of her school years in Dar es Salaam then moved to the USA at the age of 18 to join her cousin, who was doing well and making a name for herself.
“I was inspired to join her and continue learning from her unsurmountable experience on a diverse range of issues,” Naike told The Weight She Carries.
Initially, her parents hesitated. She was too young, they believed. The USA was a completely different world with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. How would she handle that, they wondered.
“The fear of the USA was not just for my parents because I was scared too,” she said. “The USA was a fast-paced environment for me. People were always working and trying to make ends meet. After discerning with my parents, I was given a green light to go.”
Naike attended Tennessee Weslyan University and graduated with a degree in human resource management and business management.
Seven years later, with her education and some professional experience under her belt, Naike decided she had learned enough and it was time go back home.
“When I came back, I knew that there were a lot of things that needed to change within my community. One of the gaps I saw was lack of opportunities, access to information and spaces where women can create networks,” she said. “This gap continued the disparities between women and men’s access to opportunities.”
Naike founded Women in Management (WIMA) to help women get leadership opportunities and create a database with information based on women.
“I want to scale this initiative in different African countries so that women can be heard,” she said.
As an influential African woman CEO, Naike wears many hats and does it well.
In a sitdown with the lionesses of Africa, the inspirational Naike Moshi had these words to say;
Tell us about yourself
I am the founder of Women in Management Africa, an initiative that closes the gender gap that promotes visibility for Women Leaders by honouring and recognizing them for their achievements. I am a strategic, innovative leader with a proven track record of building and creating successful business products and services. With a strong academic background, creative problem-solving skills, and an innovative mind, I have been instrumental in creating an impact within my area of expertise. I have more than 10 years’ experience in the area of business management and human resources. My expertise includes building businesses from the ground up, women and youths’ empowerment, coming up with innovative ideas, executive search and employer branding.
What does your company do?
Women in Management is an initiative that closes the gender gap by honouring and recognizing women leaders for their career achievements. Women in Management Africa provides mentorship, encouragement and develops emerging talented female professionals to be inspired in their careers and to be role models to them. WIMA objectives include identifying education and training workshops that are designed by women for women and to help them address gender disparity issues in their work environments. We provide female executive searches by identifying female leaders for senior level roles and board member roles.
“Being a specialist in Recruitment and Talent Acquisition, I saw gaps of women applying positions especially in senior roles so this is where Women in Management Africa was born.”
What inspired you to start your company?
After being in the Executive Recruitment for more than 5 years, we saw a huge gap in senior level women applying for senior level roles and even low placement rates for Senior Women. While both genders browse jobs similarly, they apply to them differently. Research shows that in order to apply for a job women feel they need to meet 100% of the criteria while men usually apply after meeting about 60%.
To combat this, I founded the initiative known as Women in Management to promote and increase visibility for Senior-Level Women in Management. The idea came to feature 50 Senior Women in Management to our social media Pages “Career Women Wednesday.” This idea created a lot of buzz and traction by inspiring emerging leaders showing them it’s possible for them to reach the career leader specially for female professionals. At the end of the year, 50 Women in Management were honoured and provided with awards and in March 2021, we will be going to our second edition.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
It’s one of the SDGs that captures gender equality. It’s a universal problem that affects many nations and with our expertise in Talent Management/Acquisition, we were able to tap into our network and acquire very strong female leaders. The service and this initiative are very scalable and we do plan to go to other African countries.
Tell us a little about your team
We are very small team but we are so productive and very talented. My team is very innovative, we always try to come up with new ideas and always continue to improve. My team is always working hard to get results done and find new ways of doing things and innovation is our core values.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
My entrepreneurial journey started in 2013, after being in the international development space for more than 3 years, I thought it was time to start my own entrepreneurial journey. I started a company on management consulting but that failed within a year. However, there were lessons learnt during this period. In 2014, I was the franchise owner of CVPeople Tanzania where I started the recruitment agency from scratch on a shoe-string budget and I am still with it till now. Being a specialist in Recruitment and Talent Acquisition, I saw gaps of women applying positions especially in senior roles so this is where Women in Management Africa was born.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
The future plan for WIMA is to scale the organizations to different countries in Africa. We are looking for strategic partners in different parts of Africa, if you feel that you like what we are doing in Tanzania and want to be part of this initiative. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@wima.co.tz
“The impact of this initiative has been tremendous. Most women leaders in the corporate spaces have been forgotten and are never recognized for their career achievements.”
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
The impact of this initiative has been tremendous. Most women leaders in the corporate spaces have been forgotten and are never recognized for their career achievements. I have seen many young female leaders being inspired to follow certain careers and they have found quality role models to look at. We are touching lives.
What’s the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Don’t be scared to start, nothing will ever happen until you start and put action on your dreams. Even if you fail, know that at least you dared greatly and take lessons from it. Be patient, persevere….
source: lionessesofafrica.com / theweightshecarries.com