UAE-Listed Companies Should Have At Least One Female On Board

The UAE’s Securities and Commoidities Authority announced that listed companies in the UAE now need to have at least one female director on their boards.

This "is a priority for the SCA and its board during the coming period and we will work with all partners to enhance the local investment environment and support its legal infrastructure to meet the UAE Vision 2021 and the targets of the next 50 years", Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq said in a statement.

President of the #UAE Gender Balance Council Her Highness @MMbinRashid commends the Securities and Commodities Authority’s decision to make women’s representation on the boards of all listed companies mandatoryhttps://t.co/jodhZSGHkz

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 15, 2021

Women currently sit on the boards of 28 of the 110 listed companies in the UAE, or 26 per cent of the total. However, they only make up around 3.5 per cent (29 of a total of 823 board members) of board directors of these firms, according to Aurora50, social enterprise co-founded by Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa.

World Bank said in a blog post last week that the UAE has the highest level of women participating in the workforce – 57.5 per cent in 2020 – of any country in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Image Source: Yara Al Namlah Instagram