The 2021 Women on Boards (WoB) indicator reached 16.7%, achieving a significant improvement in comparison to 13% in 2020, marking a growth rate of 28.5% in one year. Sustaining the 3% annual increase achieved in the past two years will enable the analyzed categories to reach the 2030 strategy goal of 30% women on boards by 2026.

The representation of women on boards varied across the categories included in the report. Non-banking financial sector (NBFS) companies achieved an 18.6% representation of women on boards in 2021 compared to 14.7% in 2020, achieving a growth rate of 26.5%. EGX listed companies’ indicators increased from 11.6% in 2020 to 15.2% in 2021, marking a growth rate of 31%. The banking sector has also realized a slight improvement, increasing from 13.7% in 2020 to 14.2% in 2021, witnessing a growth rate of 3.6%. On the contrary, public enterprise companies, currently undergoing structural reforms, witnessed a slight decline in the representation of women on boards from 8.7% in 2020 to 8.1% in 2021, realizing a negative growth rate of -6.9%.

On the other hand, companies with zero women on board decreased dramatically across all categories except for the banking sector. The percentage of EGX listed companies decreased from 42.7% in 2020 to 14.9% in 2021, NBFS companies’ percentage decreased from 47.5% in 2020 to 19.7% in 2021, and public enterprise decreased from 71.9% in 2020 to 62.8% in 2021. However, banks with zero women on board slightly increased from 20.6% to 23.5% between 2020 and 2021, an increase of only one bank.