Oman Arab Bank (OAB) has launched a mentoring programme that is specifically geared towards women. The programme was announced as part of the bank’s Omani Women’s Day celebrations at the Fraser Suites in Muscat.

Randa Sadik, a Member of the Board of OAB and the Deputy CEO of Arab Bank was Guest of Honour at the event, which was attended by over 200 women employees and senior management of the bank.

As part of the event, OAB also partnered with Sidab Women, which is supervised by the Ministry and Social Development. The organisation seeks to empower Omani women, by establishing projects that benefit their participants. Their current project aims to reduce waste by creating bags using recycled materials.

A section of the event was also dedicated to women-established Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in order to help them promote their business.

Speaking at the event, Sadik said she was pleased and honoured to be part of the celebrations that acknowledged the many achievements and successes of the Omani women and their pivotal contributions across the different sectors in the Sultanate. “At home and in the work place, Omani women continue to set a great example for reliability, hard work, professionalism and ambition, working side by side with men in tackling challenges and leveraging opportunities towards building the future,” she said.

The internal women mentoring programme is designed to help participants tap into their latent talents and put them on the path to success by arming them with skills and tools to overcome roadblocks. The programme will see 26 participants work in groups with 10 mentors over a course of six months. They will be subjected to an initial training course on the ins and outs of mentoring.

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Commenting on OAB’s initiative, Asma Al Zadjali, Head of the Banking Operations Group, stated, “Trust is a very important element in anyone’s success: we need to trust our own talent and ability, and also trust the people around us to help us in achieving our goals. Mentoring builds on this trust relationship. It allows us to share the relevant development areas without the fear of being judged. This helps mentees gain confidence in their abilities and strengthen communication, which in turn leads to further career development.”

Rashad Al Musafir, CEO of the Bank, spoke about the bank’s commitment to talent, stating, “Diversity in the workplace makes good business sense. At OAB, our talent development initiatives are aimed at improving the overall output of our employees but are also structured in a way that recognises and uplifts all talent to contribute to the overall success of the bank. Our training initiatives, including mentoring, are an extension of our strategy to support our colleagues throughout their journey at OAB.”