The Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN), a global networking organization for senior women in private equity, has expanded to Nigeria, following the formal launch of PEWIN Africa earlier in the year, in South Africa.

The invitation-only members organization, which was founded in 2007 in the US, has been expanding internationally, opening London and Hong Kong chapters in 2015 in its first international expansion move.

Future expansion on the continent will include Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya. 

PEWIN’s expansion in Africa comes as the investment management and private equity industries are increasing their focus on how to boost the number of women working in the industry, which is one of the most male-dominated areas of financial services.

The recently published McKinsey Women Matter Report also underscores this point on gender diversity in the workplace in Africa.

According to the report, women are under-represented at every level of the corporate ladder, and fall in number the higher they climb as only 5% of women make it to the top. 

On November 10, 2016, PEWIN hosted an Africa Institutional Investor Roundtable in Lagos, Nigeria.

This event was attended by nearly 30 senior women investors representing pension fund administrators, fund managers, development finance institutions, insurance companies and other stakeholders focused on private equity.

The purpose of the event was to bring into focus the role of private equity, not only as a developmental tool for the country at large, but also for women in Nigeria. 

Kelly Williams, Chair of PEWIN, said: “It’s so rare that you interact or see a woman across the table from you on a daily basis. So we have to create these events. There is a real pent-up demand for women to have other women to talk to, to share their experience with, to do business with. We have seen a great response wherever we go.”