Centre partners UN Information Centre on girls’ ICT participation
Chiazo Ogbolu
Lagos, April 27, 2019(NAN) The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) has parterned with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos, to sensitise girls on participation in Information and Communications Technology careers.
The Communications Officer, Mr Adeyemi Odutola, disclosed in a statement on Saturday that the partnership was in conjunction with UN Women, Nigeria.
According to him, the partnership which took the form of girls interactive forum is to Mark the 2019 International Girls in ICT Day.
“The International Girls in ICT Day is an initiative backed by all International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Member States in ITU Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 (Rev. Dubai, 2018), which aims to encourage and empower girls and young women to consider studies and careers in the growing field of ICTs.
“It is also to enable both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector.
“The International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of April in which all ITU Member States, Sector Members, Associates and Academia are urged to organise events attracting as many girls and young women as possible.
“Furthermore the ITU estimates that within the next 10 years, there will be more than two million technology jobs that cannot be filled because of a lack of digital specialists.
“It further pointed out that girls and young women who learn coding, app development and computer science will be well-placed for a successful career in the ICT sector.
“Thus based on this consideration, the aim of the event, organised by W.TEC is to bring together; Nigerian school girls, aspiring ladies and leading women in tech, for an impactful forum to exchange ideas and experiences to help inspire a new generation of Nigerian girls to explore the exciting opportunities offered by careers in ICT,” he said.
Odutola said that participants of the event (secondary school girls from both public and private schools and tech undergraduates) were treated to insightful tech speeches, panellist discussion sessions, short films on women in technology, technology project presentations by students, tech exhibition by students.
He said that the keynote address by Comfort Lamptey, Country Director , UN Women, Nigeria was on ”Expanding Horizons and Changing Attitudes to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide for Sustainable Development”.
He added that Lamptey who was represented by Obiananma Agbim urged government and stakeholders to agree on a National Gender Digital Inclusion Agenda that would provide initiatives, strengthen commitment in addressing gender digital divide in the country.
He said that Lamptey also urged government to implement a regulatory and legal framework to drive ICT adoption and create policies that would strengthen public agencies coordination and participation.
He said that the Director of UNIC, Lagos, Mr Ronald Kayanja, urged the girls to pay attention on ICT issues as it would help them towards their future careers.
The W.TEC official said that the event had two panel sections to help in molding the young girls, tittled, ”Gender Equality in Digital Access, Skills and Leadership” and ”Think Equal: Women Rising in Technology Careers”.
Odutola listed some of the guests that at the event as; Chidiogo Victor-Willie, Software Enterprise Licensing & Compliance Manager at Oracle, Eduabasi Essien, Partner Development Manager at Microsoft, Bisi Osibogun, Sales Development Specialist, Baker Hughes, GE.
Others are: Simbo Olatoregun, Product Marketing Manager SSA, Grow with Google, Google Nigeria and Sefunmi Fadahunsi, Oracle Academy Programme Manager, Sub Saharan Africa.
He said that participants were urged to be very ready for opportunities to take advantage of to move ahead in the game. She congratulated the participants for their active participation.(NAN)
CAN/JTJ
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Edited by Julius Toba-Jegede